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This is a cross-post from MSE (where I got no answer).

It is well-known that conformal maps between $2$-dimensional Riemannian manifolds are harmonic.

I discovered lately that in dimension $d>2$, conformal harmonic maps must be scaled isometries (The conformal factor is constant).

I am quite sure this should be already known, but couldn't find a reference. Any help?

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This result is well-known in the theory of harmonic morphisms, about which, there is an extensive literature. It is a quite general fact (not depending on the conformally flat case of Euclidean space), implying that, when $n>2$, any conformal map $f:(M^n,g)\to (N^n,h)$ between (connected) Riemannian manifolds of dimension $n$ that is harmonic is necessarily a homothety i.e., $f^*(h) = r^2 g$ for some constant $r\ge0$.

You can find proofs in introductory papers and books on harmonic morphisms. I'm traveling, so I don't have time to check the best references, but, for example, try B. Fuglede, Harmonic morphisms between Riemannian manifolds, Ann. Inst. Fourier 28 (1978), 107-144, which probably has a proof written out there.

You can also find a proof in the introductory sections of my paper, Harmonic morphisms with fibers of dimension one (Communications in Analysis and Geometry, Volume 8 (2000), 219–265, but you'll have to sort out the relevant bits of the discussion in order to trace through a proof.

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  • $\begingroup$ Thanks. The right keyword was indeed "harmonic morphisms". (I searched for harmonic maps, so missed it). BTW, you might be interested in this question (where I described my approach to this statement about conformal harmonic mappings in high dimensions). $\endgroup$ Commented Apr 27, 2017 at 7:26
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Indeed, the result can be found in the book Harmonic morphisms between Riemannian manifolds, by Paul Baird, John C. Wood.

The relevant statement is Corollary 3.5.2.

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