Equivariant harmonic maps between manifolds with metrics of \((p,q)\)-signature (Q916172)

Let \((M\times\mathbb{R},A^2(t)g-dt^2)\) and \((N\times\mathbb{R},B^2(t)h+dt^2)\), \(t\in\mathbb{R}\), be Lorentzian and Riemannian manifolds resp. with warped products and \(f: M\times \mathbb{R}\to N\times \mathbb{R}\), \(f(x,t)=(\Phi(x),\alpha(t))\), \(x\in M\), a map such that \(\Phi: M\to N\) is a harmonic map of constant energy density. Then a reduction theorem can be derived by expressing harmonicity of \(f\) in terms of an O.D.E. for \(\alpha\). The author generalizes this setting to manifolds \((M\times \mathbb{R})\), (\(N\times \mathbb{R})\) with indefinite metrics derived from a set of mutually orthogonal locally integrable distributions (warped over \(\mathbb{R})\). A general reduction theorem is derived and applied to various classical situations that give rise to harmonic maps from hyperspheres to space forms and indefinite tori to hyperspheres. The author further proves global existence of the solution for the associated Cauchy problem for the mappings of these examples (the initial data being given on a spacelike submanifold) and studies the qualitative properties (of the image) of the solutions.