On biharmonic submanifolds in non-positively curved manifolds

Abstract

In the biharmonic submanifolds theory there is a generalized Chen's conjecture which states that biharmonic submanifolds in a Riemannian manifold with non-positive sectional curvature must be minimal. This conjecture turned out false by a counter example of Y. L. Ou and L. Tang in \cite{Ou-Ta}. However it remains interesting to find out sufficient conditions which guarantee this conjecture to be true. In this note we prove that: 1. Any complete biharmonic submanifold (resp. hypersurface) $(M, g)$ in a Riemannian manifold $(N, h)$ with non-positive sectional curvature (resp. Ricci curvature) which satisfies an integral condition: for some $p\in (0, +\infty)$, $\int_{M}|\vec{H}|^{p}du_g<+\infty,$ where $\vec{H}$ is the mean curvature vector field of $M\hookrightarrow N$, must be minimal. This generalizes the recent results due to N. Nakauchi and H. Urakawa in \cite{Na-Ur1} and \cite{Na-Ur2}. 2. Any complete biharmonic submanifold (resp. hypersurface) in a Reimannian manifold of at most polynomial volume growth whose sectional curvature (resp. Ricci curvature) is non-positive must be minimal. 3. Any complete biharmonic submanifold (resp. hypersurface) in a non-positively curved manifold whose sectional curvature (resp. Ricci curvature) is smaller that $-\epsilon$ for some $\epsilon>0$ which satisfies that $\int_{B_\rho(x_0)}|\vec{H}|^{p+2}d\mu_g(p\geq0)$ is of at most polynomial growth of $\rho$, must be minimal. We also consider $\varepsilon$-superbiharmonic submanifolds defined recently in \cite{Wh} by G. Wheeler and prove similar results for $\varepsilon$-superbiharmonic submanifolds, which generalize the result in \cite{Wh}.