On functions with a conjugate

DOI10.5802/AIF.2931MaRDI QIDQ748359zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Publication date 20 October 2015

Published in Annales de l’institut Fourier (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/1205.6577, http://hdl.handle.net/1885/107111

3-harmonic functions conformal differential invariants conjugate functions partial differential inequalities

Methods of global Riemannian geometry, including PDE methods; curvature restrictions (53C21) Differential geometric aspects of harmonic maps (53C43)

Abstract: Harmonic functions of two variables are exactly those that admit a conjugate, namely a function whose gradient has the same length and is everywhere orthogonal to the gradient of the original function. We show that there are also partial differential equations controlling the functions of three variables that admit a conjugate.

Review text

A smooth function \(f\) defined on a 2-dimensional Riemannian manifold \(M\) admits a conjugate -- that is, a function \(g\) on \(M\) whose gradient has same length and is orthogonal to the gradient of \(f\) -- if and only if \(f\) is harmonic. The authors investigate how such a statement may be extended to the case where the dimension of \(M\) is higher, in particular when it is an open subset of \(\mathbb R^3\). They provide necessary and sufficient conditions for a function \(f\) to have a conjugate, in terms of inequalities satisfied by particular conformal differential invariants. Those are expressed as polynomials in the derivatives of \(f\). The authors then discuss special cases involving the multiplicity of conjugates and provide examples.

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