Matthew K. Cooper | Searcharxiv

arXiv2020

Supercritical equivariant biharmonic maps from $\mathbf{R}^5$ into $S^5$

We study supercritical $O(d)$-equivariant biharmonic maps with a focus on $d = 5$, where $d$ is the dimension of the domain. We give a characterisation of non-trivial equivariant biharmonic maps from $\mathbf{R}^5$ into $S^5$ as heteroclinic orbits of an associated dynamical system. Moreover, we prove the existence of such non-trivial equivariant biharmonic maps. Finally, in stark contrast to the harmonic map analogue, we show the existence of an equivariant biharmonic map from $B^5(0, 1)$ into $S^5$ that winds around $S^5$ infinitely many times.

math.AP↗

arXiv2015

Critical $O(d)$-equivariant biharmonic maps

We study $O(d)$-equivariant biharmonic maps in the critical dimension. A major consequence of our study concerns the corresponding heat flow. More precisely, we prove that blowup occurs in the biharmonic map heat flow from $B^4(0, 1)$ into $S^4$. To our knowledge, this was the first example of blowup for the biharmonic map heat flow. Such results have been hard to prove, due to the inapplicability of the maximum principle in the biharmonic case. Furthermore, we classify the possible $O(4)$-equivariant biharmonic maps from $\mathbf{R}^4$ into $S^4$, and we show that there exists, in contrast to the harmonic map analogue, equivariant biharmonic maps from $B^4(0,1)$ into $S^4$ that wind around $S^4$ as many times as we wish. We believe that the ideas developed herein could be useful in the study of other higher-order parabolic equations.

math.AP↗