Non-degeneracy and quantitative stability of half-harmonic maps from ${mathbb R}$ to ${mathbb S}$

We consider half-harmonic maps from $mathbb{R}$ (or $mathbb{S}$) to $mathbb{S}$. We prove that all (finite energy) half-harmonic maps are non-degenerate. In other words, they are integrable critical points of the energy functional. A full description of the kernel of the linearized operator around each half-harmonic map is given. The second part of this paper devotes to studying the quantitative stability of half-harmonic maps. When its degree is $pm 1$, we prove that the deviation of any map $boldsymbol{u}:mathbb{R}to mathbb{S}$ from Mobius transformations can be controlled uniformly by $|boldsymbol{u}|_{dot H^{1/2}(mathbb{R})}^2-deg boldsymbol{u}$. This result resembles the quantitative rigidity estimate of degree $pm 1$ harmonic maps $mathbb{R}^2to mathbb{S}^2$ which is proved recently. Furthermore, we address the quantitative stability for half-harmonic maps of higher degree. We prove that if $boldsymbol{u}$ is already near to a Blaschke product, then the deviation of $boldsymbol{u}$ to Blaschke products can be controlled by $|boldsymbol{u}|_{dot H^{1/2}(mathbb{R})}^2-deg boldsymbol{u}$. Additionally, a striking example is given to show that such quantitative estimate can not be true uniformly for all $boldsymbol{u}$ of degree 2. We conjecture similar things happen for harmonic maps ${mathbb R}^2to {mathbb S}^2$.