Biharmonic maps from a complete Riemannian manifold into a non-positively curved manifold

Shun Maeta

Published 2013-05-30, updated 2013-08-28Version 3

We consider biharmonic maps $\phi:(M,g)\rightarrow (N,h)$ from a complete Riemannian manifold into a Riemannian manifold with non-positive sectional curvature. Assume that $\alpha$ satisfies $1<\alpha<\infty$. If for such an $\alpha$, $\int_M|\tau(\phi)|^{\alpha}dv_g<\infty$ and $\int_M|d\phi|^2dv_g<\infty,$ where $\tau(\phi)$ is the tension field of $\phi$, then we show that $\phi$ is harmonic. For a biharmonic submanifold, we obtain that the above assumption $\int_M|d\phi|^2dv_g<\infty$ is not necessary. These results give affirmative partial answers to the global version of generalized Chen's conjecture.