On the equivariant stability of harmonic self-maps of cohomogeneity one manifolds

Abstract

The systematic study of harmonic self-maps on cohomogeneity one manifolds has recently been initiated by P\"uttmann and the second named author in \cite{MR4000241}. In this article we investigate the corresponding Jacobi equation describing the equivariant stability of such harmonic self-maps. Besides several general statements concerning their equivariant stability we explicitly solve the Jacobi equation for some harmonic self-maps in the cases of spheres, special orthogonal groups and $\SU(3)$. In particular, we show by an explicit calculation that for specific cohomogeneity one actions on the sphere the identity map is equivariantly stable.