Jacobi fields along harmonic 2-spheres in S3S^3 and S4S^4 are not all integrable

In a previous paper, we showed that any Jacobi field along a harmonic map from the 2-sphere to the complex projective plane is integrable (i.e., is tangent to a smooth variation through harmonic maps). In this paper, in contrast, we show that there are (non-full) harmonic maps from the 2-sphere to the 3-sphere and 4-sphere which have non-integrable Jacobi fields. This is particularly surprising in the case of the 3-sphere where the space of harmonic maps of any degree is a smooth manifold, each map having image in a totally geodesic 2-sphere.Comment: 43 pages. Some typos corrected; introduction expande

Topological restrictions for circle actions and harmonic morphisms

Let $M^m$ be a compact oriented smooth manifold which admits a smooth circle action with isolated fixed points which are isolated as singularities as well. Then all the Pontryagin numbers of $M^m$ are zero and its Euler number is nonnegative and even. In particular, $M^m$ has signature zero. Since a non-constant harmonic morphism with one-dimensional fibres gives rise to a circle action we have the following applications: (i) many compact manifolds, for example $CP^{n}$, $K3$ surfaces, $S^{2n}\times P_g$ ($n\geq2$) where $P_g$ is the closed surface of genus $g\geq2$ can never be the domain of a non-constant harmonic morphism with one-dimensional fibres whatever metrics we put on them; (ii) let $(M^4,g)$ be a compact orientable four-manifold and $\phi:(M^4,g)\to(N^3,h)$ a non-constant harmonic morphism. Suppose that one of the following assertions holds: (1) $(M^4,g)$ is half-conformally flat and its scalar curvature is zero, (2) $(M^4,g)$ is Einstein and half-conformally flat, (3) $(M^4,g,J)$ is Hermitian-Einstein. Then, up to homotheties and Riemannian coverings, $\phi$ is the canonical projection $T^4\to T^3$ between flat tori.Comment: 18 pages; Minor corrections to Proposition 3.1 and small changes in Theorem 2.8, proof of Theorem 3.3 and Remark 3.