For any $n$-dimensional smooth manifold $Σ$, we show that all the singularities of the mean curvature flow with any initial mean convex hypersurface in $Σ$ are cylindrical (of convex type) if the flow converges to a smooth hypersurface $M_{\infty}$ (maybe empty) at infinity. Previously this was shown (i) for $n\leq 7$, and (ii) for arbitrary $n$ up to the first singular time without the smooth condition for $M_{\infty}$.
We give a classification of non-removable isolated singularities for real analytic solutions of the prescribed mean curvature equation in Minkowski $3$-space.
We prove that finite area isolated singularities of surfaces with constant positive curvature in R^3 are removable singularities, branch points or immersed conical singularities. We describe the space of immersed conical singularities of such surfaces in terms of the class of real analytic closed locally convex curves in the 2-sphere with admissible cusp singularities, characterizing when the singularity is actually embedded. In the global setting, we describe the space of peaked spheres in R^3, i.e. compact convex surfaces of constant positive curvature with a finite number of singularities, …
We study graphical mean curvature flow of complete solutions defined on subsets of Euclidean space. We obtain smooth long time existence. The projections of the evolving graphs also solve mean curvature flow. Hence this approach allows to smoothly flow through singularities by studying graphical mean curvature flow with one additional dimension.
It has long been conjectured that starting at a generic smooth closed embedded surface in R^3, the mean curvature flow remains smooth until it arrives at a singularity in a neighborhood of which the flow looks like concentric spheres or cylinders. That is, the only singularities of a generic flow are spherical or cylindrical. We will address this conjecture here and in a sequel. The higher dimensional case will be addressed elsewhere. The key in showing this conjecture is to show that shrinking spheres, cylinders and planes are the only stable self-shrinkers under the mean curvature flow. We p…
Shrinkers are special solutions of mean curvature flow (MCF) that evolve by rescaling and model the singularities. While there are infinitely many in each dimension, [CM1] showed that the only generic are round cylinders $\SS^k\times \RR^{n-k}$. We prove here that round cylinders are rigid in a very strong sense. Namely, any other shrinker that is sufficiently close to one of them on a large, but compact, set must itself be a round cylinder. To our knowledge, this is the first general rigidity theorem for singularities of a nonlinear geometric flow. We expect that the techniques and ideas deve…
In [Vel94], Velazquez constructed a countable collection of mean curvature flow solutions in $\mathbb{R}^N$ in every dimension $N \ge 8$. Each of these solutions becomes singular in finite time at which time the second fundamental form blows up. In contrast, we confirm here that, in every dimension $N \ge 8$, a nontrivial subset of these solutions has uniformly bounded mean curvature.
In [5], Sáez and Schnürer studied the graphical mean curvature flow of complete hypersurfaces defined on subsets of Euclidean space. They obtained long time existence. Moreover, they provided a new interpretation of weak mean curvature flow. In this paper, we generalize their results to a general curvature setting. Our key ingredient is the existence result of general curvature flow with boundary conditions, which is proved in Section 4.
In this paper, we prove the uniqueness of asymptotically conical tangent flows in all codimensions. This is based on an early work of Chodosh-Schulze, who proved the uniqueness in the hypersurface case.
A mean curvature flow starting from a closed embedded hypersurface in $R^{n+1}$ must develop singularities. We show that if the flow has only generic singularities, then the space-time singular set is contained in finitely many compact embedded $(n-1)$-dimensional Lipschitz submanifolds plus a set of dimension at most $n-2$. If the initial hypersurface is mean convex, then all singularities are generic and the results apply. In $R^3$ and $R^4$, we show that for almost all times the evolving hypersurface is completely smooth and any connected component of the singular set is entirely contained …
We study conformal metrics with prescribed Gaussian curvature on surfaces with conical singularities and geodesic boundary in supercritical regimes. Exploiting a variational argument, we derive a general existence result for surfaces with at least two boundary components. This seems to be the first result in this setting. Moreover, we allow to have conical singularities with both positive and negative orders, that is cone angles both less and grater than $2π$.
We construct smooth mean curvature flows with surgery that approximate weak mean curvature flows with only spherical and neck-pinch singularities. This is achieved by combining the recent work of Choi-Haslhofer-Hershkovits, and Choi-Haslhofer-Hershkovits-White, establishing canonical neighbourhoods of such singularities, with suitable barriers to flows with surgery. A limiting argument is then used to control these approximating flows. We conclude by improving the entropy bound on the low-entropy Schoenflies conjecture.
We study the formation of generic singularities of mean curvature flow by combining the different approaches, specifically the methods in studying blowup of nonlinear heat equations, the techniques used by the author and the collaborators for mean curvature flow, and these invented by Colding and Minicozzi. We study the solution in a neighborhood of the blowup point, in some generic regimes, we find the key parameters take favorable signs and have sharp decay rates. We provide the remainder estimates in different norms.
We prove a removal of singularities result for Bach-flat metrics in dimension 4 under the assumption of bounded L^2 norm of curvature, bounded Sobolev constant and a volume growth bound. This result extends the removal of singularities result for special classes of Bach-flat metrics obtained in \cite{TVMOD}. For the proof we analyze the decay rates of solutions to the Bach-flat equation linearized around a flat metric. This classification is used to prove that Bach-flat cones are in fact ALE of order $τ$ for any $τ< 2$. This result is then used to prove the removal of singularities theorem.
We investigate the formation of singularities for surfaces evolving by volume preserving mean curvature flow. For axially symmetric flows - surfaces of revolution - in $\mathbb{R}^3$ with Neumann boundary conditions, we prove that the first developing singularity is of Type I. The result is obtained without any additional curvature assumptions being imposed, while axial symmetry and boundary conditions are justifiable given the volume constraint. Additional results and ingredients towards the main proof include a non-cylindrical parabolic maximum principle, and a series of estimates on geometr…
We consider one of the generic regimes of formation of singularities. We obtain a detailed description of a possibly small, but fixed, neighborhood of the blowup point, up to (and including) the blowup time, and find that it is mean convex. This confirms a conjecture by Ilmanen. And we find that the singularity is isolated from the other ones.
The purpose of this article is to examine the possible shapes of type I singularities that form in the mean curvature flow of submanifolds of arbitrary codimension, assuming that the initial submanifold satisfies a particular curvature pinching condition.
In this paper we derive a refined asymptotic expansion, near an isolated singularity, for conformally flat metrics with constant positive Q-curvature and positive scalar curvature. The condition that the metric has constant Q-curvature forces the conformal factor to satisfy a fourth order nonlinear partial differential equation with critical Sobolev growth, whose leading term is the bilaplacian. We model our results on a similar asymptotic expansion for conformally flat, constant scalar curvature metrics proven by Korevaar, Mazzeo, Pacard, and Schoen. Along the way we analyze the linearization…
In this article, by following the method in \cite{PT}, combining Willmore energy with isoperimetric inequalities, we construct two examples of singularities under mean curvature flow in $\mathbb{H}^3$. More precisely, there exists a torus, which must develop a singularity under MCF before the volume it encloses decreases to zero. There also exists a topological sphere in the shape of a dumbbell, which must develop a singularity in the flow before its area shrinks to zero. Simultaneously, by using the flow, we proved an isoperimetric inequality for some domains in $\mathbb{H}^3$.
In this paper we study the short time existence problem for the (generalized) Lagrangian mean curvature flow in (almost) Calabi--Yau manifolds when the initial Lagrangian submanifold has isolated conical singularities modelled on stable special Lagrangian cones. Given a Lagrangian submanifold $F_0:L\rightarrow M$ in an almost Calabi--Yau manifold $M$ with isolated conical singularities at $x_1,...,x_n\in M$ modelled on stable special Lagrangian cones $C_1,...,C_n$ in $\mathbb{C}^m$, we show that for a short time there exist one-parameter families of points $x_1(t),... x_n(t)\in M$ and a one pa…
By constructing an ODE through a kind of meromorphic 1-forms, we will give an explicit construction of a kind of conformal metrics of constant curvature on Riemann surfaces with singularities. As an application, we will classify constant curvature one metrics on $S^{2}$ with two conical singularities, which was first proved by Troyanov in \cite{Tr89} by using projective connection.
A necessary and sufficient condition for the existence and uniqueness of a conformal metric on 2-sphere of constant curvature 1 and with three conical singularities of prescribed order is given.
Given any embedded Lagrangian on a four dimensional compact Calabi-Yau, we find another Lagrangian in the same Hamiltonian isotopy class which develops a finite time singularity under mean curvature flow. This contradicts a weaker version of the Thomas-Yau conjecture regarding long time existence and convergence of Lagrangian mean curvature flow.
We define a generalization of convex functions, which we call $δ$-convex functions, and show they must satisfy interior Hölder and $W^{1,p}$ estimates. As an application, we consider solutions of a certain class of fully nonlinear equations in conformal geometry with isolated singularities, in the case of non-negative Ricci curvature. We prove that such solutions either extend to a Hölder continuous function across the singularity, or else have the same singular behavior as the fundamental solution of the conformal Laplacian. We also obtain various removable singularity theorems for these equa…
In this paper we investigate the singularities of Lagrangian mean curvature flows in $\mathbf{C}^m$ by means of smooth singularity models. Type I singularities can only occur at certain times determined by invariants in the cohomology of the initial data. In the type II case, these smooth singularity models are asymptotic to special Lagrangian cones; hence all type II singularities are modeled by unions of special Lagrangian cones.
We show relation between sign of Gaussian curvature of cuspidal edge and geometric invariants through types of singularities of Gauss map. Moreover, we define and characterize positivity/negativity of cusps of Gauss maps by geometric invariants of cuspidal edges, and show relation between sign of cusps and of the Gaussian curvature.
In this paper, we introduce a monotonicity formula for the mean curvature flow. We also apply this monotonicity formula to study the asymptotic behavior of eternal solutions.
We study almost-calibrated, $O(n)$-equivariant Lagrangian mean curvature flow in $\mathbb{C}^n$, and prove structural theorems about the Type I and Type II blowups of finite-time singularities. In particular, we prove that any Type I blowup of such a flow must be a special Lagrangian pair of transversely intersecting planes, any Type II blowup must be the Lawlor neck with the same asymptotes, and these blowups are independent of the choice of rescaling. We also give a partial classification of when singularities occur in the equivariant case, and examine the intermediate scales between the Typ…
The topological structure of the lines of principal curvature, the umbilic and partially umbilic singularities of all tridimensional ellipsoids of ${\mathbb R}^4$ is described.
In this paper we prove that the set of metrics conformal to the standard metric on $\mathbb{S}^{n}\backslash\{p_{1},\cdots,p_{l}\}$ is locally compact in $C^{m,α}$ topology for any $m>0$, whenever the metrics have constant $σ_{k}$ curvature and the $k$-Dilational Pohozaev invariants have positive lower bound for $k<n/2$. Here the $k$-Dilational Pohozaev invariants come from the Kazdan-Warner type identity for the $σ_{k}$ curvature, which is derived by Viaclovsky \cite{Viac2000} and Han \cite{H1}. When $k=1$, Pollack \cite{Pollack} proved the compactness results for the complete metrics of cons…
In this paper we give sufficient conditions that guarantee the meancurvature flow with free boundary on an embedded rotationally symmetric double cone develops a Type 2 curvature singularity. We additionally prove that Type 0 singularities may only occur at infinity.
In this paper we study the singularities of the mean curvature flow from a symplectic surface or from a Lagrangian surface in a Kähler-Einstein surface. We prove that the blow-up flow $Σ_s^\infty$ at a singular point $(X_0, T_0)$ of a symplectic mean curvature flow $Σ_t$ or of a Lagrangian mean curvature flow $Σ_t$ is a non trivial minimal surface in ${\bf R}^4$, if $Σ_{-\infty}^\infty$ is connected.
We study the equation for improper (parabolic) affine spheres from the view point of contact geometry and provide the generic classification of singularities appearing in geometric solutions to the equation as well as their duals. We also show the results for surfaces of constant Gaussian curvatureand for developable surfaces. In particular we confirm that generic singularities appearing in such a surface are just cuspidal edges and swallowtails.
In this paper we study the blow up sequence of mean curvature flow of surfaces in $\mathbb R^3$ with additional forces. We prove that the blow up limit of a mean curvature flow of smoothly embedded surfaces with additional forces with finite entropy is a smoothly embedded self-shrinker.
We consider conformal metrics of constant curvature 1 on a Riemann surface, with finitely many prescribed conic singularities and prescribed angles at these singularities. Especially interesting case which was studied by C. L. Chai, C. S Lin and C. L. Wang is described in some detail, with simplified proofs.
We use integrable systems techniques to study the singularities of timelike non-minimal constant mean curvature (CMC) surfaces in the Lorentz-Minkowski 3-space. The singularities arise at the boundary of the Birkhoff big cell of the loop group involved. We examine the behaviour of the surfaces at the big cell boundary, generalize the definition of CMC surfaces to include those with finite, generic singularities, and show how to construct surfaces with prescribed singularities by solving a singular geometric Cauchy problem. The solution shows that the generic singularities of the generalized su…
First we restate the definition of a Zero Area Singularity, recently introduced by H. Bray. We then consider several definitions of mass for these singularities. We use the Inverse Mean Curvature Flow to prove some new results about the mass of a singularity, the ADM mass of the manifold, and the capacity of the singularity.
In this paper, we study the singularities of spacelike constant mean curvature one (CMC 1) surfaces in the de Sitter 3-space. We prove the duality between generalized conelike singular points and 5/2-cuspidal edges on spacelike CMC 1 surfaces. To describe the duality between $A_{k+3}$ singularities and cuspidal $S_k$ singularities, we introduce two invariants, called the $α$-invariant and $σ$-invariant, of spacelike CMC 1 surfaces at their singular points. Moreover, we give a classification of non-degenerate singular points on spacelike CMC 1 surfaces.
Once one knows that singularities occur, one naturally wonders what the singularities are like. For minimal varieties the first answer, already known to Federer-Fleming in 1959, is that they weakly resemble cones. For mean curvature flow, by the combined work of Huisken, Ilmanen, and White, singularities weakly resemble shrinkers. Unfortunately, the simple proofs leave open the possibility that a minimal variety or a mean curvature flow looked at under a microscope will resemble one blowup, but under higher magnification, it might (as far as anyone knows) resemble a completely different blowup…
In this paper, we first derive a pinching estimate on the traceless Ricci curvature in term of scalar curvature and Weyl tensor under the Ricci flow. Then we apply this estimate to study finite-time singularity behavior. We show that if the scalar curvature is uniformly bounded, then the Weyl tensor has to blow up, as a consequence, the corresponding singularity model must be Ricci flat with non-vanishing Weyl tensor.
We prove that for a mean curvature flow of a compact symplectic surface in a compact Kaehler-Einstein surface, the tangent cone at the first blow-up time consists of a finite union of more than two 2-planes in $R^4$ which are complex in a complex structure on $R^4$.
