Invitation to H-systems in higher dimensions: known results, new facts, and related open problems

TL;DR

This paper reviews known results, discusses open problems, and presents new findings related to regularity issues in higher-dimensional H-systems and n-harmonic maps, highlighting key difficulties and open questions.

Contribution

It provides new partial results for solutions in certain function spaces and outlines open problems that could resolve longstanding regularity questions.

Findings

Positive results for solutions in W^{n/2,2} spaces for even n

Discussion of main difficulties in higher dimensions

Open questions on endpoint regularity and commutator boundedness

Abstract

In this paper, we discuss two well-known open problems in the regularity theory for nonlinear, conformally invariant elliptic systems in dimensions $n\ge 3$, with a critical nonlinearity: $H$-systems (equations of hypersurfaces of prescribed mean curvature) and $n$-harmonic maps into compact Riemannian manifolds. For $n=2$ several solutions of these problems are known but they all break down in higher dimensions (unless one considers special cases, e.g. hypersurfaces of constant mean curvature or manifolds with symmetries). We discuss some of the known proofs and hint at the main difficulties. We also state a few new results (such as positive answers for all solutions of class $W^{n/2,2}$ for even $n$, instead of $W^{1,n}$) and list some open questions of independent interest - including specific endpoint variants of the Coifman-Rochberg-Weiss theorem, addressing the boundedness of commutators of fractional and singular integrals with multiplication by bounded functions of class $W^{1,n}$ - that would lead to solutions of these two problems.