k-harmonic curves into a Riemannian manifold with constant sectional curvature

Abstract

J.Eells and L. Lemaire introduced k-harmonic maps, and T. Ichiyama, J. Inoguchi and H.Urakawa showed the first variation formula. In this paper, we describe the ordinary differential equations of $3$-harmonic curves into a Riemannian manifold with constant sectional curvature, and show biharmonic curve is k-harmonic curve $(k\geq 2)$.