On the rank of harmonic maps (Q754011)

A basic problem concerning unique continuation of harmonic maps is: If the image of an open subset is in a k-dimensional submanifold, must the whole image also lie in a k-dimensional submanifold? The answer is ``yes'' in the classical case when \(k=0\), and also for \(k=1\). We present a counterexample for the cases \(k\geq 2\) by constructing a smooth metric g on \(R^ 3\) and a harmonic map u: (R\({}^ 3,g)\to (R^ 3,g_ 0)\), with \(g_ 0\) being the standard flat metric, such that there are open sets \(V_ 1\), \(V_ 2\) in \(R^ 3\), with \(rank(du)=2\) on \(V_ 1\), but \(rank(du)=3\) on \(V_ 2\).