The geometry of $\Phi_{(3)}$-harmonic maps

Abstract

In this paper, we motivate and extend the study of harmonic maps or $\Phi_{(1)}$-harmonic maps (cf [15], Remark 1.3 (iii)), $\Phi$-harmonic maps or $\Phi_{(2)}$-harmonic maps (cf. [24], Remark 1.3 (v)), and explore geometric properties of $\Phi_{(3)}$-harmonic maps by unified geometric analytic methods. We define the notion of $\Phi_{(3)}$-harmonic maps and obtain the first variation formula and the second variation formula of the $\Phi_{(3)}$-energy functional $E_{\Phi_{(3)}}$. By using a stress-energy tensor, the $\Phi_{(3)}$-conservation law, a monotonicity formula, and the asymptotic assumption of maps at infinity, we prove Liouville type results for $\Phi_{(3)}$-harmonic maps. We introduce the notion of $\Phi_{(3)}$-Superstrongly Unstable ($\Phi_{(3)}$-SSU) manifold and provide many interesting examples. By using an extrinsic average variational method in the calculus of variations (cf. [51, 49]), we find $\Phi_{(3)}$-SSU manifold and prove that for $i=1,2,3$, every compact $\Phi_{(i)}$-$\operatorname{SSU}$ manifold is $\Phi_{(i)}$-$\operatorname{SU}$, and hence is $\Phi_{(i)}$-$\operatorname{U}$ (cf. Theorem 9.3). As consequences, we obtain topological vanishing theorems and sphere theorems by employing a $\Phi_{(3)}$-harmoic map as a catalyst. This is in contrast to the approaches of utilizing a geodesic ([45]), minimal surface, stable rectifiable current ([34, 29, 50]), $p$-harmonic map (cf. [53]), etc., as catalysts. These mysterious phenomena are analogs of harmonic maps or $\Phi_{(1)}$-harmonic maps, $p$-harmonic maps, $\Phi_{S}$-harmonic maps, $\Phi_{S,p}$-harmonic maps, $\Phi_{(2)}$-harmonic maps, etc., (cf. [21, 40, 42, 41, 12, 13]).