Global regularity of wave maps IV. Absence of stationary or self-similar solutions in the energy class

Terence Tao

Published 2008-06-22, updated 2009-08-06Version 2

Using the harmonic map heat flow, we construct an energy class for wave maps $\phi$ from two-dimensional Minkowski space $\R^{1+2}$ to hyperbolic spaces $\H^m$, and then show (conditionally on a large data well-posedness claim for such wave maps) that no stationary, travelling, self-similar, or degenerate wave maps exist in this energy class. These results form three of the five claims required in our earlier paper (arXiv:0805.4666) to prove global regularity for such wave maps. (The conditional claim of large data well-posedness is one of the remaining claims required in that paper.)