Harmonic maps from noncompact Riemannian manifolds with non-negative Ricci curvature outside a compact set

Abstract

In this paper we prove the uniqueness and existence of harmonic maps of finite energy from a complete, noncompact Riemannian manifold (M, g) with Sobolev constant S2(M) > 0 and Ricci curvature Ric (M) ≧ 0 outside some compact subset, into a complete manifold of nonpositive curvature or a regular ball. In particular, we prove the uniqueness and existence of bounded harmonic functions on (M, g).