Calc. Var.

12, 213–222 (2001)

Digital Object Identifier (DOI) 10.1007/s005260000066

On sequences of maps with equibounded energies

Mariano Giaquinta1 , Giuseppe Modica2
1
Scuola Normale Superiore, Piazza dei Cavalieri 7, 56126 Pisa, Italy
2
Dipartimento di Matematica Applicata, Università degli Studi di Firenze,
Via S. Marta 3, 50139 Firenze, Italy

Received July 10, 2000 / Accepted July 17, 2000 /

Published online November 9, 2000 –
c Springer-Verlag 2000

Let X , Y be two oriented Riemannian manifolds respectively of dimensions

n, m ≥ 2. We shall assume that Y is compact and without boundary and that
its
integral 2-homology group H2 (Y) has no torsion, so that H2 (Y, Z) =
{ s̄s=1 ns [γ]s }, γ1 , . . . γs̄ being integral cycles and H2 (Y, R) = H2 (Y, Z)
⊗R, and for future use we denote by ω 1 , . . . , ω s̄ the harmonic forms such
that

ω r = ([γs ]R |[ω r ]) = δsr .
γs

In this paper we prove a closure theorem for a class of Cartesian currents

with finite energy in X × Y, extending to any dimension a result of [4].
A corollary is that concentration without annihilation, or without loss of
energy, of sequences of smooth maps with equibounded energies may arise
only on Hn−2 -rectifiable sets. This is partially related to results of F. H. Lin
[7], see also [6], where, using the regularity theory, the Hn−2 -rectifiability of
the concentration set is proved for sequences of smooth stationary harmonic
maps. We shall also refine some of the results in [5] and, in particular, extend
the partial regularity theorem for energy minimizing Cartesian currents in
[3] to any dimension and on any target Y. In order to formulate our results
we need to recall some notation and state a few facts, compare [5].

Dn,2 -currents. Every differential n-form ω ∈ Dn (X × Y) splits as a

n
sum ω = k=0 ω (k) , n := min(n, m), where the ω (k) ’s are the n-forms
which contain exactly k differentials in the vertical Y variables. We de-
n,2 (X × Y) the subspace of D n (X × Y) of n-forms of the type

D
note by
2 (k) , and by D n,2 (X × Y).
ω = k=0 ω n,2 (X × Y) the dual space of D
214 M. Giaquinta, G. Modica

2
Every (n, 2)-current T ∈ Dn,2 (X × Y) splits as T = k=1 T(k) , where
T(k) (ω) := T (ω (k) ).

D-norm. For ω ∈ Dn,2 (X × Y) we set

 
|ω (0) (x, y)|
||ω|| := max sup , sup |ω (1) (x, y)|2 d volX ,
x,y 1 + |y|2 X y
 
(2)
sup |ω (x, y)| d volX ,
X y
  

||T ||D := sup T (ω)  ω ∈ Dn,2 (X × Y), ||ω||D ≤ 1 .


It is easily seen that ||T ||D is a norm on {T ∈ Dn,2 (X × Y)  ||T ||D < ∞}.
D
Let {Tk } ⊂ Dn,2 (X × Y); we say that {Tk } D-converges to T , Tk  T , if
Tk (ω) → T (ω) ∀ω ∈ Dn,2 (X × Y) and supk ||Tk ||D < ∞. Clearly || ||D
is D-weakly lower semicontinuous, in particular T ∈ Dn,2 (X × Y) and
D
||T ||D < ∞ if Tk  T ; moreover every sequence {Tk } ⊂ Dn,2 (X ×Y) has
a subsequence which D-converges to some T ∈ Dn,2 (X × Y), ||T ||D < ∞.

Boundaries. The exterior differential d splits into a horizontal and a ver-

tical differential d = dx + dy . Since dx ω ∈ Dn,2 (X × Y) whenever
ω ∈ Dn−1.2 (X × Y) (differentiation in the x variables does not change
the number of vertical differentials), ∂x T (ω) := T (dx ω) defines a bound-
ary operator ∂x : Dn,2 (X × Y) → Dn−1,2 (X × Y). Instead ∂y T makes
sense only as element of the dual space of
  

Z n,2 (X × Y) := ω ∈ Dn,2 (X × Y)  dy ω (2) = 0 ,

in fact, if ω ∈ Dn,2 (X × Y), dy ω belongs to Dn,2 (X × Y) if and only if

dy ω (2) = 0.

Boundary data. For the sake of simplicity we shall discuss only the case of
mappings or currents with “prescribed boundary data”. Let Ω be a bounded
domain in X and let Ω  be a domain with Ω  ⊃⊃ Ω. We prescribe the
boundary data by fixing a (smooth) map ϕ : Ω  \ Ω → Y and setting

 Y) := {u ∈ W 1,2 (Ω,
Wϕ1,2 (Ω;  Y)  u = ϕ on Ω \ Ω},

and we say that T agrees with ϕ on the boundary of Ω if T ∈ Dn,2 (Ω × Y)


and T = Gϕ on (Ω \ Ω) × Y, Gϕ being the current in Dn,2 (Ω × Y) 
integration on the graph of ϕ.