Regularity for harmonic maps into certain Pseudo-Riemannian manifolds

TL;DR

This paper establishes regularity results for harmonic maps into pseudo-Riemannian manifolds, proving smoothness in certain cases and extending harmonic map theory to new target spaces.

Contribution

It introduces new regularity theorems for harmonic maps into pseudo-Riemannian manifolds, including $ ext{epsilon}$-regularity and smoothness results, expanding the scope of harmonic map theory.

Findings

Harmonic maps into Lorentzian manifolds are Hölder continuous in dimension 2.

Weakly harmonic maps into De-Sitter and Anti-de-Sitter spaces are smooth.

Extended regularity results for generalized harmonic maps into pseudo-spheres and hyperbolic spaces.

Abstract

In this article, we investigate the regularity for certain elliptic systems without a $L^2$-antisymmetric structure. As applications, we prove some $\epsilon$-regularity theorems for weakly harmonic maps from the unit ball $B= B(m) \subset \mathbb{R}^m $ $(m\geq2)$ into certain pseudo-Riemannian manifolds: standard stationary Lorentzian manifolds, pseudospheres $\mathbb{S}^n_\nu \subset \mathbb{R}^{n+1}_\nu$ $(1\leq\nu \leq n)$ and pseudohyperbolic spaces $\mathbb{H}^n_\nu \subset \mathbb{R}^{n+1}_{\nu+1}$ $(0\leq\nu \leq n-1)$. Consequently, such maps are shown to be H\"{o}lder continuous (and as smooth as the regularity of the targets permits) in dimension $m=2$. In particular, we prove that any weakly harmonic map from a disc into the De-Sitter space $\mathbb{S}^n_1$ or the Anti-de-Sitter space $\mathbb{H}^n_1$ is smooth. Also, we give an alternative proof of the H\"{o}lder continuity of any weakly harmonic map from a disc into the Hyperbolic space $\mathbb{H}^n$ without using the fact that the target is nonpositively curved. Moreover, we extend the notion of generalized (weakly) harmonic maps from a disc into the standard sphere $\mathbb{S}^n$ to the case that the target is $\mathbb{S}^n_\nu$ $(1\leq\nu \leq n)$ or $\mathbb{H}^n_\nu$ $(0\leq\nu \leq n-1)$, and obtain some $\epsilon$-regularity results for such generalized (weakly) harmonic maps.