Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: The study of biharmonic submanifolds in Euclidean spaces was introduced in the middle of the 1980s by the author in his program studying finite-type submanifolds. He defined biharmonic submanifolds in Euclidean spaces as submanifolds whose position vector field (x) satisfies the biharmonic equation, i.e., Δ2x=0. A well-known conjecture proposed by the author in 1991 on biharmonic submanifolds states that every biharmonic submanifold of a Euclidean space is minimal, well known today as Chen’s biharmonic conjecture. On the other hand, independently, G.-Y. Jiang investigated biharmonic maps between Riemannian manifolds as the critical points of the bi-energy functional. In 2002, R. Caddeo, S. Montaldo, and C. Oniciuc pointed out that both definitions of biharmonicity of the author and G.-Y. Jiang coincide for the class of Euclidean submanifolds. Since then, the study of biharmonic submanifolds and biharmonic maps has attracted many researchers, and many interesting results have been achieved. A comprehensive survey of important results on this conjecture and on many related topics was presented by Y.-L. Ou and B.-Y. Chen in their 2020 book. The main purpose of this paper is to provide a detailed survey of recent developments in those subjects after the publication of Ou and Chen’s book.
Source: Mathematics
DOI: 10.3390/math13091417
Author: Bang-Yen Chen
Institution: Michigan State University
Language: English
Subfield: Astronomy and Astrophysics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $3,137
OpenAlex ID: W4409804769