Pluriharmonic maps into buildings and symmetric differentials

Abstract: Given a complex smooth quasi-projective variety $X$, a semisimple algebraic group $G$ defined over some non-archimedean local field $K$ and a Zariski dense representation $\varrho:\pi_1(X)\to G(K)$, we construct a $\varrho$-equivariant (pluri-)harmonic map from the universal cover of $X$ into the Bruhat-Tits building $\Delta(G)$ of $G$, with some suitable asymptotic behavior. This theorem generalizes the previous work by Gromov-Schoen to the quasi-projective setting. As an application, we prove that $X$ has nonzero global logarithmic symmetric differentials if there exists a linear representation $\pi_1(X)\to {\rm GL}_N(\mathbb{K})$ with infinite image, where $ \mathbb{K}$ is any field. This theorem generalizes the previous work by Brunebarbe, Klingler and Totaro to the quasi-projective setting.