Biharmonic Riemannian submersions from the product space $M^2 times r$

Abstract:  In this paper,  we study  biharmonic Riemannian submersions $ pi:M^2 times r to (N^2,h)$ from a product manifold onto a surface and obtain some local characterizations of such biharmonic maps. Our results show that when the target surface is flat, then a proper biharmonic Riemannian submersion $ pi:M^2 times r to (N^2,h)$ is locally a projection of a special twisted product, and when the target surface is non-flat, $ pi$ is locally a  special map between two warped product spaces with a warping function that solves a single ODE. As a by-product, we also prove that there is a unique proper biharmonic Riemannian submersion $H^2 times r to r^2$ given by the projection of a warped product.