Related papers: Harmonic Spheres in the Hilbert-Schmidt Grassmanni…
The Grassmannian model represents harmonic maps from Riemann surfaces by families of shift-invariant subspaces of a Hilbert space. We impose a natural symmetry condition on the shift-invariant subspaces that corresponds to considering an…
We introduce the notion of Riemannian twistorial structure and we show that it provides new natural constructions of harmonic maps.
We consider the twistor theory of nilconformal harmonic maps from a Riemann surface into the Cayley plane $\mathbf{O} P^2=F_4/\mathrm{Spin}(9)$. By exhibiting this symmetric space as a submanifold of the Grassmannian of $10$-dimensional…
This is a survey of old and new results on the problem when a compatible almost complex structure on a Riemannian manifold is a harmonic section or a harmonic map from the manifold into its twistor space. In this context, a special…
In this paper, we address several interconnected problems in the theory of harmonic maps between Riemannian manifolds. First, we present necessary background and establish one of the main results of the paper: a criterion characterizing…
Harmonic mappings into Teichmuller spaces appear in the study of manifolds which are fibrations whose fibers are Riemann surfaces. In this article we will study the existence and uniquenesses questions of harmonic mappings into Teichmuller…
This paper resolves a long-standing open problem by providing a classification of Willmore $2$-spheres in $S^n$. We show that any such $2$-sphere is either totally isotropic--originating from the projection of a special twistor curve in the…
The spaces of harmonic maps of the projective plane to the four-dimensional sphere are investigated in this paper by means of twistor lifts. It is shown that such spaces are empty in case of even harmonic degree. In case of harmonic degree…
Motivated by the rich theory of harmonic maps from a 2-sphere, we study biharmonic maps from a 2-sphere in this paper. We first derive biharmonic equation for rotationally symmetric maps between rotationally symmetric 2-manifolds. We then…
We investigate in detail the connection between harmonic maps from Riemann surfaces into the unitary group $\U(n)$ and their Grassmannian models: these are families of shift-invariant subspaces of $L^2(S^1,\C^n)$. With the help of…
In this paper, we discuss the associated family of harmonic maps $\mathcal{F}: M \rightarrow G/K$ from a Riemann surface $M$ into inner symmetric spaces of compact or non-compact type which are either algebraic or totally symmetric. These…
We find geometric conditions on a four-dimensional Hermitian manifold endowed with a metric connection with totally skew-symmetric torsion under which the complex structure is a harmonic map from the manifold into its twistor space…
We extend many known results for harmonic maps from the 2-sphere into a Grassmannian to harmonic maps of finite uniton number from an arbitrary Riemann surface. Our method relies on a new theory of nilpotent cycles arising from the diagrams…
We deal here with the geometry of the twistor fibration $\mathcal{Z} \to \bb{S}^3_1$ over the De Sitter 3-space. The total space $\mathcal{Z}$ is a five dimensional reductive homogeneous space with two canonical invariant almost CR…
This is a survey article to appear in the "Handbook on Teichmueller Theory".
We show that a harmonic map from a Riemann surface into the exceptional symmetric space $G_2/{\mathrm SO}(4)$ has a $J_2$-holomorphic twistor lift into one of the three flag manifolds of $G_2$ if and only if it is `nilconformal', i.e., has…
Biharmonic maps are the critical points of the bienergy functional and generalise harmonic maps. We investigate the index of a class of biharmonic maps, derived from minimal Riemannian immersions into spheres. This study is motivated by…
An order four automorphism of a Lie algebra gives rise to an integrable system discussed by Terng. We show that solutions of this system may be identified with certain vertically harmonic twistor lifts of conformal maps of surfaces in a…
We present an explicit description of all harmonic maps of finite uniton number from a Riemann surface into a complex Grassmannian. Namely, starting from a constant map $Q$ and a collection of meromorphic functions and their derivatives, we…
We define harmonic maps between sub-Riemannian manifolds by generalizing known definitions for Riemannian manifolds. We establish conditions for when a horizontal map into a Lie group with a left-invariant metric structure is a harmonic…