The Sesquiharmonic Map Flow from Riemannian Surfaces

Abstract

Let $M$ be a two-dimensional compact manifold without boundary and let $N$ be a compact manifold without boundary. We study the $L^2$-gradient flow of an energy functional that interpolates between the harmonic map energy and the intrinsic biharmonic map energy. The critical points of this functional are called sesqui-harmonic maps. We investigate regularity properties of this flow, generalizing Struwe's classical regularity result for harmonic maps.