Harmonic maps between surfaces homotopic to a (branched) covering map

Abstract

In the paper, we consider the harmonic maps between surfaces $\Sigma$ and $S$ in the homotopy class of a (branched) covering map $u_0$. We prove the uniqueness of critical points of energy function and the injectivity of Hopf differential if $u_0$ is a covering map. On the other hand, if $u_0$ is a branched covering, we show that the uniqueness of critical points fails if $u_0$ is a non-simple branched covering, and prove the injectivity of Hopf differential $\Phi:\mc{T}(S)\to \op{QD}(\Sigma,g)$ when $g=[u_0^* h]$ for some hyperbolic metric $h$ on $S$.