A Short Survey on Biharmonic Maps between Riemannian Manifolds

and the corresponding Euler-Lagrange equation is H = 0, where H is the mean curvature vector field. If φ : (M, g) → (N, h) is a Riemannian immersion, then it is a critical point of the bienergy in C∞(M,N) if and only if it is a minimal immersion [26]. Thus, in order to study minimal immersions one can look at harmonic Riemannian immersions. A natural generalization of harmonic maps and minimal immersions can be given by considering the functionals obtained integrating the square of the norm of the tension field or of the mean curvature vector field, respectively. More precisely: • biharmonic maps are the critical points of the bienergy functional E2 : C∞(M,N) → R, E2(φ) = 12 ∫