Abstract

In this paper, we introduce a second order linear differential operator ^T□: C^∞ (M) → C^∞ (M) as a natural generalization of Cheng-Yau operator, [8], where T is a (1, 1)-tensor on Riemannian manifold (M, h), and then we show on compact Riemannian manifolds, divT = divT^t, and if divT = 0, and f be a smooth function on M, the condition ^T□ f = 0 implies that f is constant. Hereafter, we introduce T-energy functionals and by deriving variations of these functionals, we define T-harmonic maps between Riemannian manifolds, which is a generalization of L_k-harmonic maps introduced in [3]. Also we have studied fT-harmonic maps for conformal immersions and as application of it, we consider fL_k-harmonic hypersurfaces in space forms, and after that we classify complete fL₁-harmonic surfaces, some fL_k-harmonic isoparametric hypersurfaces, fL_k-harmonic weakly convex hypersurfaces, and we show that there exists no compact fL_k-harmonic hypersurface either in the Euclidean space or in the hyperbolic space or in the Euclidean hemisphere. As well, some properties and examples of these definitions are given.