Critical points of the distance function on the moduli space for spherical eigenmaps and minimal immersions (Q1875925)

The author studies the critical points of the distance function on the boundary strata defined by the boundary of a do Carmo-Wallach moduli space parametrizing eigenmaps between spheres or spherical minimal immersions. The author shows that the critical points provide a natural generalization of eigenmaps and he points out several classical examples of eigenmaps corresponding to critical points. The main results on critical points are contained in theorems A--D and the applications to do Carmo-Wallach moduli spaces are given in theorems E--F of section 2.