Back to harmonic mappings of compact Riemannian manifolds

Abstract: In this paper, we address several interconnected problems in the theory of harmonic maps between Riemannian manifolds. First, we present necessary background and establish one of the main results of the paper: a criterion characterizing when a smooth submersion or diffeomorphism between Riemannian manifolds is harmonic. This result provides a useful analytic condition for verifying the harmonicity of geometric mappings. Second, we investigate the L2-orthogonal decomposition of the pullback metric associated with a harmonic map. We analyze the structure of this decomposition and discuss its geometric implications, particularly in the context of the energy density and trace conditions. Finally, we study harmonic symmetric bilinear forms and harmonic Riemannian metrics. Special attention is given to their role in the theory of harmonic identity maps. We derive new results that link these notions and demonstrate how they contribute to the broader understanding of harmonicity in geometric analysis.