Some existence and uniqueness results of harmonic maps

Abstract

This thesis discusses some existence and uniqueness problems of harmonic maps. It consists of two parts: Part I. Existence of harmonic maps with prescribed finite singularities. Here we address the question of existence of a harmonic map from a spatial domain to the sphere S$\sp2$ which has a prescribed finite set of singularities. Part II. Uniqueness of energy minimizing harmonic maps for almost all smooth boundary data. Suppose $\Omega$ is a smooth domain in R$\sp{m}$ and N is a compact smooth manifold. Here we show roughly that almost all smooth maps from $\partial\Omega$ to N serve as boundary values for a unique energy minimizing map u from $\Omega$ to N. This involves constructing a finite measure on a suitable (infinite dimensional) space of smooth boundary values.