This paper studies the large time existence for the motion of closed hypersurfaces in a radially symmetric potential. In physical, this surface can be considered as an electrically charged membrane with a constant charge per area in a radially symmetric potential. The evolution of such surface has been investigated by Schnürer and Smoczyk (Evolution of hypersurfaces in central force fields, J. Reine Angew. Math. 550 (2002), 77-95). To study its motion, we introduce a quasi-linear degenerate hyperbolic equation which describes the motion of the surfaces extrinsically. Our main results show that the large time existence of such Cauchy problem and the stability with respect to small initial data. When the radially symmetric potential function $v\equiv1$, the local existence and stability results have been obtained by Notz (Closed Hypersurfaces driven by mean curvature and inner pressure, Comm. Pure Appl. Math. 66(5) (2013), 790-819). The proof is based on a new Nash-Moser iteration scheme.
We show that any closed connected hypersurface in $\mathbb{R}^4$ with entropy less than or equal to that of the round cylinder is smoothly isotopic to the standard three-sphere.
We investigate the mean curvature flows in a class of warped product manifolds with closed hypersurfaces fibering over $\mathbb{R}$. In particular, we prove that under natural conditions on the warping function and Ricci curvature bound for the ambient space, there exists a large class of closed initial hypersurfaces, as geodesic graphs over the totally geodesic hypersurface $Σ$, such that the mean curvature flow starting from $S_0$ exists for all time and converges to $Σ$.
Let $M^{n+1}$ be a closed manifold of dimension $3\leq n+1\leq 7$. We show that for a $C^\infty$-generic metric $g$ on $M$, to any connected, closed, embedded, $2$-sided, stable, minimal hypersurface $S\subset (M,g)$ corresponds a sequence of closed, embedded, minimal hypersurfaces $\{Σ_k\}$ scarring along $S$, in the sense that the area and Morse index of $Σ_k$ both diverge to infinity and, when properly renormalized, $Σ_k$ converges to $S$ as varifolds. We also show that scarring of immersed minimal surfaces along stable surfaces occurs in most closed Riemannian $3$-manifods.
Several results from differential geometry of hypersurfaces in R^n are derived to form a tool box for the direct mapping method. The latter technique has been widely employed to solve problems with moving interfaces, and to study the asymptotics of the induced semiflows.
In [5], Colding-Ilmanen-Minicozzi-White showed that within the class of closed smooth self-shrinkers in $\mathbb{R}^{n+1}$, the entropy is uniquely minimized at the round sphere. They conjectured that, for $2\leq n\leq 6$, the round sphere minimizes the entropy among all closed smooth hypersurfaces. Using an appropriate weak mean curvature flow, we prove their conjecture. For these dimensions, our approach also gives a new proof of the main result of [5] and extends its conclusions to compact singular self-shrinkers.
With respect to a $C^{\infty}$ metric which is close to the standard Euclidean metric on $\mathbb{R}^{N+1+\ell}$, where $N\ge 7$ and $\ell\ge 1$ are given, we construct a class of embedded $(N+\ell)$-dimensional hypersurfaces (without boundary) which are minimal and strictly stable, and which have singular set equal to an arbitrary preassigned closed subset $K\subset\{0\}\times\mathbb{R}^{\ell}$.
Given a compact Riemannian manifold $M$, we consider a warped product $\bar M = I \times_h M$ where $I$ is an open interval in $\Rr$. We suppose that the mean curvature of the fibers do not change sign. Given a positive differentiable function $ψ$ in $\bar M$, we find a closed hypersurface $Σ$ which is solution of an equation of the form $F(B)=ψ$, where $B$ is the second fundamental form of $Σ$ and $F$ is a function satisfying certain structural properties. As examples, we may exhibit examples of hypersurfaces with prescribed higher order mean curvature.
We prove that any $n$-dimensional closed mean convex $λ$-hypersurface is convex if $λ\le 0.$ This generalizes Guang's work on $2$-dimensional strictly mean convex $λ$-hypersurfaces. As a corollary, we obtain a gap theorem for closed $λ$-hypersurfaces with $λ\le 0.$
We give a shorter proof of the existence of nontrivial closed minimal hypersurfaces in closed smooth $(n+1)$--dimensional Riemannian manifolds, a theorem proved first by Pitts for $2\leq n\leq 5$ and extended later by Schoen and Simon to any $n$.
Using min-max theory, we show that in any closed Riemannian manifold of dimension at least 3 and at most 7, there exist infinitely many smoothly embedded closed minimal hypersurfaces. It proves a conjecture of S.-T. Yau. This paper builds on the methods developed by F. C. Marques and A. Neves.
We consider an axisymmetric closed hypersurface evolving by its mean curvature with driving force under singular initial hypersurface. We study this problem by level set method. We give some criteria to judge whether the interface evolution is fattening or non-fattening.
We use a weak mean curvature flow together with a surgery procedure to show that all closed hypersurfaces in $\mathbb{R}^4$ with entropy less than or equal to that of $\mathbb{S}^2\times \mathbb{R}$, the round cylinder in $\mathbb{R}^4$, are diffeomorphic to $\mathbb{S}^3$.
Let $Σ$ be a smooth closed hypersurface with non-negative Ricci curvature, isometrically immersed in a space form. It has been proved in \cite{P}, \cite{CZ}, and \cite{C2} that there are some $L^2$ inequalities on $Σ$ which measure the stability of closed umbilical hypersurfaces or more generally, closed hypersurfaces with traceless Newton transformation of the second fundamental form. In this paper, we prove that the constants in these inequalities are optimal.
We prove the existence of smooth closed hypersurfaces of prescribed mean curvature homeomorphic to $S^n$ for small $n, n\le6$, provided there are barriers.
Given a unit vector field on a closed Euclidean hypersurface, we define a map from the hypersurface to a sphere in the Euclidean space. This application allows us to exhibit a list of topological invariants which combines the second fundamental form of the hypersurface and the vector field itself. We show how these invariants can be used as obstructions to certain codimension one foliations.
We consider closed and orientable immersed hypersurfaces of translational manifolds. Given a vector field on such a hypersurface, we define a perturbation of its Gauss map, which allows us to obtain topological invariants for the immersion that depends on the geometry of the manifold and the ambient space. We use these quantities to find obstructions to the existence of certain codimension one foliations.
We prove a topological rigidity theorem for closed hypersurfaces of the Euclidean sphere and of an elliptic space form. It asserts that, under a lower bound hypothesis on the absolute value of the principal curvatures, the hypersurface is diffeomorphic to a sphere or to a quotient of a sphere by a group action. We also prove another topological rigidity result for hypersurfaces of the sphere that involves the spherical image of its usual Gauss map.
Let $x$ be an $m$-dimensional umbilic-free hypersurface in an $(m+1)$-dimensional unit sphere $\mathbb{S}^{m+1}(m\geq3)$. One of important questions is to classify hypersurfaces with two distinct principal curvatures. In this paper, we classify and explicitly express the hypersurfaces with two distinct principal curvatures and closed Moebius form, and then we characterize and classify conformally flat hypersurfaces of dimension larger than 3.
We prove a qualitative and a quantitative stability of the following rigidity theorem: an anisotropic totally umbilical closed hypersurface is the Wulff shape. Consider $n \geq 2$, $p\in (1, \, +\infty)$ and $Σ$ an $n$-dimensional, closed hypersurface in $\mathbb{R}^{n+1}$, boundary of a convex, open set. We show that if the $L^p$ norm of the trace-free part of the anisotropic second fundamental form is small, then $Σ$ must be $W^{2, \, p}$-close to the Wulff shape, with a quantitative estimate.
Generalizing earlier work by Ros in ambient dimension three, we prove an affine lower bound for the Morse index of closed minimal hypersurfaces inside a flat torus in terms of their first Betti number (with purely dimensional coefficients).
In this paper we consider complete noncompact Riemannian manifolds $(M, g)$ with nonnegative Ricci curvature and Euclidean volume growth, of dimension $n \geq 3$. We prove a sharp Willmore-type inequality for closed hypersurfaces $\partial Ω$ in $M$, with equality holding true if and only if $(M{\setminus}Ω, g)$ is isometric to a truncated cone over $\partialΩ$. An optimal version of Huisken's Isoperimetric Inequality for $3$-manifolds is obtained using this result. Finally, exploiting a natural extension of our techniques to the case of parabolic manifolds, we also deduce an enhanced version …
In this paper we prove that the H^k (k is odd and larger than 2) mean curvature flow of a closed convex hypersurface can be extended over the maximal time provided that the total L^p integral of the mean curvature is finite for some p
We give a partial local description of minimal hypersurfaces $M^3$ with identically zero Gauß-Kronecker curvature function in the unit 4-sphere $\Bbb{S}^4(1)$, without assumption on the compactness of $M^3$.
In this paper we show the existence of a closed, embedded $λ$-hypersurfaces $Σ\subset \mathbb{R}^{2n}$. The hypersurface is diffeomorhic to $\mathbb{S}^{n-1} \times \mathbb{S}^{n-1} \times \mathbb{S}^1$ and exhibits $SO(n) \times SO(n)$ symmetry. Our approach uses a "shooting method" similar to the approach used by McGrath in constructing a generalized self-shrinking torus solution to mean curvature flow. The result generalizes the $λ$-torus found by Cheng and Wei.
We prove $ε$-closeness of hypersurfaces to a sphere in Euclidean space under the assumption that the traceless second fundamental form is $δ$-small compared to the mean curvature. We give the explicit dependence of $δ$ on $ε$ within the class of uniformly convex hypersurfaces with bounded volume.
We study a variational problem for piecewise-smooth hypersurfaces in the (n+1)-dimensional Euclidean space with an anisotropic energy. An anisotropic energy is the integral of an energy density that depends on the normal at each point over the considered hypersurface. The minimizer of such an energy among all closed hypersurfaces enclosing the same (n+1)-dimensional volume is unique and it is (up to rescaling) so-called the Wulff shape. The Wulff shape and equilibrium hypersurfaces of this energy for volume-preserving variations are not smooth in general. We prove that, if the anisotropic ener…
In this short note we prove that the degree of the Gauss map ν of a closed 3-dimensional hypersurface of the Euclidean space is a lower bound for the total bending functional B, introduced by G. Wiegmink. Consequently, the energy functional E introduced by C. M. Wood admits a topological lower bound.
Let M be a closed minimal hypersurface in 5-dimensional Euclidean sphere with constant nonnegative scalar curvature. We prove that, if the sum of the cubes of all principal curvatures and the number of distinct principal curvatures are constant, then M is isoparametric. Moreover, We give all possible values for squared length of the second fundamental form of M. This result provides another piece of supporting evidence to the Chern conjecture.
In this paper, we show that a closed manifold $M^{n+1} (n \geq 7)$ endowed with a $C^\infty$-generic (Baire sense) metric contains infinitely many singular minimal hypersurfaces with optimal regularity. Moreover, for $2 \leq n \leq 6$, our argument also implies the denseness of the minimal hypersurfaces realizing min-max widths for generic metrics. This partially supports equidistribution of the minimal hypersurfaces realizing min-max widths conjectured by F.C. Marques, A. Neves and A. Song.
Let $Σ$ be a $C^3$ compact symmetric convex hypersurface in $\mathbf{R}^{8}$. For some special cases, we prove that when $Σ$ carries exactly four geometrically distinct closed characteristics, then all of them must be symmetric.
We prove qualitative estimates on the total curvature of closed minimal hypersurfaces in closed Riemannian manifolds in terms of their index and area, restricting to the case where the hypersurface has dimension less than seven. In particular, we prove that if we are given a sequence of closed minimal hypersurfaces of bounded area and index, the total curvature along the sequence is quantised in terms of the total curvature of some limit surface, plus a sum of total curvatures of complete properly embedded minimal hypersurfaces in Euclidean space - all of which are finite. Thus, we obtain qual…
For almost all Riemannian metrics (in the $C^\infty$ Baire sense) on a closed manifold $M^{n+1}$, $3\leq (n+1)\leq 7$, we prove that the union of all closed, smooth, embedded minimal hypersurfaces is dense. This implies there are infinitely many minimal hypersurfaces thus proving a conjecture of Yau (1982) for generic metrics.
Perez proved some $L^2$ inequalities for closed convex hypersurfaces immersed in the Euclidean space $\mathbb{R}^{n+1}$, more generally, for closed hypersurfaces with non-negative Ricci curvature, immersed in an Einstein manifold. In this paper, we discuss the rigidity of these inequalities when the ambient manifold is $\mathbb{R}^{n+1}$, the hyperbolic space $\mathbb{H}^{n+1}$, or the closed hemisphere $\mathbb{S}_+^{n+1}$. We also obtain a generalization of the Perez's theorem to the hypersurfaces without the hypothesis of non-negative Ricci curvature.
For 3 $\leq$ n $\leq$ 7, we prove that a bumpy closed Riemannian n-manifold contains a sequence of connected embedded closed minimal surfaces with unbounded area.
We show that in an $8$-dimensional closed Riemmanian manifold with $C^\infty$-generic metrics, every minimal hypersurface is smooth and nondegenerate. This confirms a full generic regularity conjecture of minimal hypersurfaces in dimension eight. This also enables us to generalize many generic geometric properties of (Almgren-Pitts) min-max minimal hypersurfaces, previously only known in low dimensions, to dimension eight.
For a unit vector field on a closed immersed Euclidean hypersurface $M^{2n+1}$, $n\geq 1$, we exhibit a nontrivial lower bound for its energy which depends on the degree of the Gauss map of the immersion. When the hypersurface is the unit sphere $\mathbb{S}^{2n+1}$, immersed with degree one, this lower bound corresponds to a well established value from the literature. We introduce a list of functionals $\mathcal{B}_k$ on a compact Riemannian manifold $M^{m}$, $1\leq k\leq m$, and show that, when the underlying manifold is a closed hypersurface, these functionals possess similar properties rega…
In Guaraco's 2018 work a new proof was given of the existence of a closed minimal hypersurface in a compact Riemannian manifold $N^{n+1}$ with $n\geq 2$. This was achieved by employing an Allen--Cahn approximation scheme and a one-parameter minmax for the Allen--Cahn energy (relying on works by Hutchinson, Tonegawa, Wickramasekera to pass to the limit as the Allen-Cahn parameter tends to $0$). The minimal hypersurface obtained may a priori carry a locally constant integer multiplicity. Here we consider a minmax construction that is a modification of the one in the aforementioned work, by allow…
We show that closed starshaped hypersurfaces of space forms with almost constant mean curvature or almost constant higher order mean curvature are closed to geodesic spheres.
In this paper, we prove there exist at least four geometrically distinct closed characteristics on every compact convex hypersurface $\Sg$ in $\R^8$. This gives a confirmed answer in the case $n=4$ to a long standing conjecture in Hamiltonian analysis since the time of A. M. Liapounov in 1892 (cf. P. 235 of \cite{Eke3}).
E. Calabi and J. Cao showed that a closed geodesic of least length in a two-sphere with nonnegative curvature is always simple. Using min-max theory, we prove that for some higher dimensions, this result holds without assumptions on the curvature. More precisely, in a closed $(n+1)$-manifold with $2 \leq n \leq 6$, a least area closed minimal hypersurface exists and any such hypersurface is embedded. As an application, we give a short proof of the fact that if a closed three-manifold $M$ has scalar curvature at least $6$ and is not isometric to the round three-sphere, then $M$ contains an embe…
The eigenvalue problem for the Sen--Witten operator on closed spacelike hypersurfaces is investigated. The (square of its) eigenvalues are shown to be given exactly by the 3-surface integral appearing in the expression of the total energy-momentum of the matter+gravity systems in Witten's energy positivity proof. A sharp lower bound for the eigenvalues, given in terms of the constraint parts of the spacetime Einstein tensor, i.e. the energy and momentum densities of the matter fields, is given.
We establish a min-max estimate on the volume width of a closed Riemannian manifold with nonnegative Ricci curvature. More precisely, we show that every closed Riemannian manifold with nonnegative Ricci curvature admits a PL Morse function whose level set volume is bounded in terms of the volume of the manifold. As a consequence of this sweep-out estimate, there exists an embedded, closed (possibly singular) minimal hypersurface whose volume is bounded in terms of the volume of the manifold.
In the early 1980s, S. T. Yau conjectured that any compact Riemannian three-manifold admits an infinite number of closed immersed minimal surfaces. We use min-max theory for the area functional to prove this conjecture in the positive Ricci curvature setting. More precisely, we show that every compact Riemannian manifold with positive Ricci curvature and dimension at most seven contains infinitely many smooth, closed, embedded minimal hypersurfaces. In the last section we mention some open problems related with the geometry of these minimal hypersurfaces.
In this work, we prove the existence of a third embedded minimal hypersurface spanning a closed submanifold $γ$ contained in the boundary of a compact Riemannian manifold with convex boundary, when it is known a priori the existence of two strictly stable minimal hypersurfaces that bound $γ$. In order to do so, we develop min-max methods similar to those of De Lellis and Ramic, references in the paper, adapted to the discrete setting of Almgren and Pitts.
