The index of biharmonic maps in spheres
arXiv:math/0303160
Abstract
Biharmonic maps are the critical points of the bienergy functional and generalise harmonic maps. We investigate the index of a class of biharmonic maps, derived from minimal Riemannian immersions into spheres. This study is motivated by three families of examples: the totally geodesic inclusion of spheres, the Veronese map and the Clifford torus.
21 pages