The space of equivariant harmonic tori in the 3-sphere

Abstract

In this paper we give an explicit parametrisation of the moduli space of equivariant harmonic maps from a 2-torus to the 3-sphere. As Hitchin proved, a harmonic map of a 2-torus is described by its spectral data, which consists of a hyperelliptic curve together with a pair of differentials and a line bundle. The space of spectral data is naturally a fibre bundle over the space of spectral curves. For homogeneous tori the space of spectral curves is a disc and the bundle is trivial. For tori with a one-dimensional invariance group, we enumerate the path connected components of the space of spectral curves and show that they are either ‘helicoids’ or annuli, and that they densely foliate the parameter space. The bundle structure of the moduli space of spectral data over the annuli components is nontrivial. In the two cases, the spectral data require only elementary and elliptic functions respectively and we give explicit formulae at every stage. Homogeneous tori and the Gauss maps of Delaunay cylinders are used as illustrative examples.