On conformal biharmonic immersions (Q836952)

For a map \(\varphi: (M^m, g)\to(N^n, h)\) between Riemannian manifolds the Jacobi operator is defined as \[ J^\varphi_g(X)= -\text{Trace}_g(\nabla^\varphi\nabla^\varphi- \nabla^\varphi_{\nabla^M})X- \text{Trace}_GR^N(d\varphi, X)\,d\varphi \] for any vector field \(X\) along the map \(\varphi\). The tension field of \(\varphi\) is \(\tau(\varphi)= \text{Trace}_g\nabla d\varphi\), and the bi-tension field is \[ \tau^2(\varphi)= \text{Trace}_g(\nabla^\varphi \nabla^\varphi-\nabla^\varphi_{\nabla^M}) \tau(\varphi)- \text{Trace}_gR^N(d\varphi, \tau(\varphi))\,d\varphi. \] The map \(\varphi\) is biharmonic if and only if its bitension field \(\tau^2(f\varphi)\) vanishes identically. First the transformations of Jacobi operator and the bi-tension field under conformal changes of metrics are studied. Then, an invariant equation is obtained for a conformal biharmonic immersion of a surface into Euclidean 3-space. As applications, a two-parametric family is constructed of non-minimal conformal biharmonic immersions of cylinder into \(\mathbb{R}^3\) and some examples of conformal biharmonic immersions of four-dimensional Euclidean space into sphere and hyperbolic space, thus providing many simple examples of proper biharmonic maps with rich geometric meanings. These suggest that there are abundant proper biharmonic maps in the family of conformal immersions. Also, the relationship between biharmonicity and holomorphicity of conformal immersions of surfaces is explored.