We construct a new compact convex embedded ancient solution of the $κ^α$ flow in $\mathbb R^2$, $α\in(\frac12,1)$ that lies between two parallel lines. Using this solution we classify all convex ancient solutions of the $κ^α$ flow in $\mathbb R^2$, for $α\in(\frac23,1)$. Moreover, we show that any non-compact convex embedded ancient solution of the $κ^α$ flow in $\mathbb R^2$, $α\in(\frac12,1)$ must be a translating solution.
We construct ancient solutions to Curve Shortening in the plane whose total curvature is uniformly bounded by gluing together an arbitrary chain of given Grim Reapers along their common asymptotes.
In this paper we investigate the rigidity of ancient solutions of the mean curvature flow with arbitrary codimension in space forms. We first prove that under certain sharp asymptotic pointwise curvature pinching condition the ancient solution in a sphere is either a shrinking spherical cap or a totally geodesic sphere. Then we show that under certain pointwise curvature pinching condition the ancient solution in a hyperbolic space is a family of shrinking spheres. We also obtain a rigidity result for ancient solutions in a nonnegatively curved space form under an asymptotic integral curvature…
We study solutions of the mean curvature flow which are defined for all negative curvature times, usually called ancient solutions. We give various conditions ensuring that a closed convex ancient solution is a shrinking sphere. Examples of such conditions are: a uniform pinching condition on the curvatures, a suitable growth bound on the diameter or a reverse isoperimetric inequality. We also study the behaviour of uniformly k-convex solutions, and consider generalizations to ancient solutions immersed in a sphere.
We prove several sharp one-sided pinching estimates for immersed and embedded hypersurfaces evolving by various fully nonlinear, one-homogeneous curvature flows by the method of Stampacchia iteration. These include sharp estimates for the largest principal curvature and the inscribed curvature ('cylindrical estimates') for flows by concave speeds and a sharp estimate for the exscribed curvature for flows by convex speeds. Making use of a recent idea of Huisken and Sinestrari, we then obtain corresponding estimates for ancient solutions. In particular, this leads to various characterisations of…
We prove that there exists, in every dimension, a unique (modulo rotations about the origin and time translations) convex ancient mean curvature flow in the ball with free boundary on the sphere.
In this paper we prove classification results for gradient shrinking Ricci solitons under two invariant conditions, namely nonnegative orthogonal bisectional curvature and weakly PIC1, without any curvature bound. New results on ancient solutions for the Ricci and Kähler-Ricci flow are also obtained. The main new feature is that no curvature upper bound is assumed.
Bounds of total curvature and entropy are two common conditions placed on mean curvature flows. We show that these two hypotheses are equivalent for the class of ancient complete embedded smooth planar curve shortening flows, which are one-dimensional mean curvature flows. As an application, we give a short proof of the uniqueness of tangent flow at infinity of an ancient smooth complete non-compact curve shortening flow with finite entropy embedded in $\mathbb{R}^2$.
We show the existence of non-homothetic ancient flows by powers of curvature embedded in $\mathbb{R}^2$ whose entropy is finite. We determine the Morse indices and kernels of the linearized operator of shrinkers to the flows and construct ancient flows by using unstable eigenfunctions of the linearized operator.
Mean curvature flow for isoparametric submanifolds in Euclidean spaces and spheres was studied by the authors in [LT]. In this paper, we will show that all these solutions are ancient solutions. We also discuss rigidity of ancient mean curvature flows for hypersurfaces in spheres and its relation to the Chern's conjecture on the norm of the second fundamental forms of minimal hypersurfaces in spheres.
Ancient solutions of the Ricci flow arise naturally as models for singularity formation. There has been significant progress towards the classification of such solutions under natural geometric assumptions. Nonnegatively curved solutions in dimensions 2 and 3, and uniformly PIC solutions in higher dimensions are now well understood. We consider ancient solutions of arbitrary dimension which are complete and have Type~I curvature growth. We show that a $κ$-noncollapsed Type~I ancient solution which is noncompact and has nonnegative sectional curvature necessarily splits at least one Euclidean f…
We construct $O(1)\times O(n)$-invariant ancient ``pancake'' solutions to a large and natural class of fully nonlinear curvature flows. We then establish that these are the unique $O(n)$-invariant ancient solutions to the corresponding flow which sweep out a slab by carrying out a fine asymptotic analysis for this class. This extends the main results of \cite{BLT} to a surprisingly general class of flows.
In this paper we consider closed non-collapsed ancient solutions to the mean curvature flow ($n \ge 2$) which are uniformly two-convex. We prove that any two such ancient solutions are the same up to translations and scaling. In particular, they must coincide up to translations and scaling with the rotationally symmetric closed ancient non-collapsed solution constructed by Brian White in (2000), and by Robert Haslhofer and Or Hershkovits in (2016).
We study solutions of high codimension mean curvature flow defined for all negative times, usually referred to as ancient solutions. We show that any compact ancient solution whose second fundamental form satisfies a certain natural pinching condition must be a family of shrinking spheres. Andrews and Baker have shown that initial submanifolds satisfying this pinching condition, which generalises the notion of convexity, converge to round points under the flow. As an application, we use our result to simplify their proof.
We show that every $n$-dimensional, $κ$-noncollapsed, noncompact, complete ancient solution to the Ricci flow with uniformly PIC for $n=4$ or $n\ge 12$ has weakly PIC$_2$ and bounded curvature. Combining this with earlier results, we prove that any such solution is isometric to either a family of shrinking cylinders (or a quotient thereof) or the Bryant soliton. Also, we classify all complex 2-dimensional, $κ$-noncollapsed, complete ancient solutions to the Kähler Ricci flow with weakly PIC.
We construct closed, embedded, ancient mean curvature flows in each dimension $n\ge 2$ with the topology of $S^1 \times S^{n-1}$. These examples are not mean convex and not solitons. They are constructed by analyzing perturbations of the self-shrinking doughnuts constructed by Drugan and Nguyen (or, alternatively, Angenent's self shrinking torus when $n =2$)
We point out that Ecker's local integral quantity agrees with Huisken's global integral quantity at infinity for ancient mean curvature flows if Huisken's one is finite on each time-slice. In particular, this means that the finiteness of Ecker's integral quantity at infinity implies the finiteness of the entropy at infinity.
We study the compact noncollapsed ancient convex solutions to Mean Curvature Flow in $\mathbb{R}^{n+1}$ with $O(1)\times O(n)$ symmetry. We show they all have unique asymptotics as $t\to -\infty$ and we give precise asymptotic description of these solutions. In particular, solutions constructed by White, and Haslhofer and Hershkovits have those asymptotics (in the case of those particular solutions the asymptotics was predicted and formally computed by Angenent).
In this short paper, we show there do not exist three-dimensional noncompact $κ$-solutions of Ricci flow that have positive curvature and satisfy a Type-I bound. This represents progress towards the proof of Perelman's conjecture that the only complete noncompact three-dimensional $κ$-solution with positive curvature is the Bryant soliton.
The main result of this paper is: Given any constant C, there is $(ε,k,L)$ such that if a complete, orientable, noncompact odd-dimensional manifold with bounded positive sectional curvature contains a $(ε,k,L)$-neck, then the asymptotic scalar curvature ratio is bigger or equal to C. As a application we proved that the asymptotic scalar curvature ratio of a complete noncompact ancient Type I-like solution to the Ricci flow with bounded positive sectional curvature on an orientable 3-manifold, is infinity.
In this short article, we prove the existence of ancient solutions of the mean curvature flow that for t -> 0 collapse to a round point, but for t -> -infinity become more and more oval: near the center they have asymptotic shrinkers modeled on round cylinders S^j x R^n-j and near the tips they have asymptotic translators modeled on Bowl^j+1 x R^n-j-1. We also give a characterization of the round shrinking sphere among ancient alpha-Andrews flows. Our proofs are based on the recent estimates of Haslhofer-Kleiner.
We show that every convex ancient solution of mean curvature flow with Type I curvature growth is either spherical, cylindrical, or planar. We then prove the corresponding statement for flows by a natural class of curvature functions which are convex or concave in the second fundamental form. Neither of these results assumes interior noncollapsing.
We provide several characterisations of collapsing and noncollapsing in convex ancient mean curvature flow, establishing in particular that collapsing occurs if and only if the flow is asymptotic to at least one Grim hyperplane. As a consequence, we rule out collapsing singularity models in $(n-1)$-convex mean curvature flow (even when the initial datum is only immersed). Explicit counterexamples show that $(n-1)$-convexity is optimal. We are also able to rule out collapsing singularity models for suitably pinched solutions of higher codimension.
We construct a class of compact ancient solutions to the mean curvature flow in Euclidean space with high codimension. In particular, we construct higher codimensional ancient curve shortening flows. Moreover, we characterize the asymptotic behavior of these solutions. Add on remark: the construction in this paper has been discovered by Altschuler D.-Altschuler S.-Angenent-Wu in [AAAW13].
We construct a compact, convex ancient solution of mean curvature flow in $\mathbb R^{n+1}$ with $O(1)\times O(n)$ symmetry that lies in a slab of width $π$. We provide detailed asymptotics for this solution and show that, up to rigid motions, it is the only compact, convex, $O(n)$-invariant ancient solution that lies in a slab of width $π$ and in no smaller slab.
Ancient solutions arise in the study of parabolic blow-ups. If we can categorize ancient solutions, we can better understand blow-up limits. Based on an argument of Giga and Kohn, we give a Liouville-type theorem restricting ancient, type-I, non-collapsing two- dimensional mean curvature flows to either spheres or cylinders.
In [ZY2], the second author proved Perelman's assertion, namely, for an ancient Ricci flow with bounded and nonnegative curvature operator, bounded entropy is equivalent to noncollapsing on all scales. In this paper, we continue this discussion. It turns out that the curvature operator nonnegativity is not a necessary condition, and we need only to assume a consequence of Hamilton's trace Harnack. Furthermore, we show that this condition holds for steady Ricci solitons with nonnegative Ricci curvature.
In this paper, we prove that any non-flat ancient solution to Kähler-Ricci flow with bounded nonnegative bisectional curvature has asymptotic volume ratio zero. We also prove that any gradient shrinking solitons with positive bisectional curvature must be compact. Both results generalize the corresponding earlier results of Perelman in \cite{P1} and \cite{P2}. The results can be applied to study the geometry and function theory of complete Kähler manifolds with nonnegative bisectional curvature via Kähler-Ricci flow. It also implies a compactness theorem on ancient solutions to Kähler-Ricci fl…
In this paper we discuss the asymptotic entropy for ancient solutions to the Ricci flow. We prove a gap theorem for ancient solutions, which could be regarded as an entropy counterpart of Yokota's work. In addition, we prove that under some assumptions on one time slice of a complete ancient solution with nonnegative curvature operator, finite asymptotic entropy implies kappa-noncollapsing on all scales. This provides an evidence for Perelman's more general assertion that on a complete ancient solution with nonnegative curvature operator, bounded entropy is equivalent to kappa-noncollapsing.
We study properly immersed ancient solutions of the codimension one mean curvature flow in $n$-dimensional Euclidean space, and classify the convex hulls of the subsets of space reached by any such flow. In particular, it follows that any compact convex ancient mean curvature flow can only have a slab, a halfspace or all of space as the closure of its set of reach. The proof proceeds via a bi-halfspace theorem (also known as a wedge theorem) for ancient solutions derived from a parabolic Omori-Yau maximum principle for ancient mean curvature flows.
A well-known question of Perelman concerns the classification of noncompact ancient solutions to the Ricci flow in dimension $3$ which have positive sectional curvature and are $κ$-noncollapsed. In this paper, we solve the analogous problem for mean curvature flow in $\mathbb{R}^3$, and prove that the rotationally symmetric bowl soliton is the only noncompact ancient solution of mean curvature flow in $\mathbb{R}^3$ which is strictly convex and noncollapsed.
We prove rigidity theorems for ancient solutions of geometric flows of immersed submanifolds. Specifically, we find pinching conditions on the second fundamental form that characterize the shrinking sphere among compact ancient solutions for the mean curvature flow in codimension greater than one, and for some nonlinear curvature flows of hypersurfaces.
We show existence of ancient solutions to the rescaled mean curvature flow starting from a given asymptotically conical self-expander. These are examples of mean curvature flows coming out of cones that are not self-similar. We also show a strong uniqueness theorem when the cone is generic and use it to classify mean curvature flows coming out of generic cones of small entropy in low dimensions.
In this paper we generalize the neck-stability theorem of Kleiner-Lott to a special class of four-dimensional nonnegatively curved Type I $κ$-solutions, namely, those whose asymptotic shrinkers are the standard cylinder $\mathbb{S}^3\times\mathbb{R}$. We use this stability result to prove a rigidity theorem: if a four-dimensional Type I $κ$-solution with nonnegative curvature operator has the standard cylinder $\mathbb{S}^3\times\mathbb{R}$ as its asymptotic shrinker, then it is exactly the cylinder with its standard shrinking metric.
We prove the existence of closed convex ancient solutions to curvature flows which become more and more oval for large negative times. The speed function is a general symmetric function of the principal curvatures, homogeneous of degree greater than one. This generalises previous work on the mean curvature flow and other one-homogeneous curvature flows. As an auxiliary result, we prove a new theorem on the convergence to a round point of convex rotationally symmetric hypersurfaces satisfying a suitable constraint on the curvatures.
Consider the standard action of $SO(2)\times SO(3)$ on $\mathbb{R}^5=\mathbb{R}^2\oplus \mathbb{R}^3$. We establish the existence of a uniform constant $\mathcal{C}>0$ so that any $SO(2)\times SO(3)$-invariant Ricci soliton on $\mathbb{S}^4\subset \mathbb{R}^5$ with Einstein constant $1$ must have Riemann curvature and volume bounded by $\mathcal{C}$, and injectivity radius bounded below by $\frac{1}{\mathcal{C}}$. This observation, coupled with basic numerics, gives strong evidence to suggest that the only $SO(2)\times SO(3)$-invariant Ricci solitons on $\mathbb{S}^4$ are round. We also encou…
Motivated by the limiting behavior of an explicit class of compact ancient curve shortening flows, we prove codimension bounds for ancient mean curvature flows by their tangent flow at $-\infty$, generalizing a theorem for cylinders in [CM19b]. In the case of the $m$-covered circle, we apply this bound to prove a strong rigidity theorem. Furthermore, we extend this paradigm by showing that under the assumption of sufficiently rapid convergence, a compact ancient mean curvature flow is identical to its tangent flow at $-\infty$.
We address the classification of ancient solutions to the Gauss curvature flow under the assumption that the solutions are contained in a cylinder of bounded cross section. For each cylinder of convex bounded cross-section, we show that there are only two ancient solutions which are asymptotic to this cylinder: the non-compact translating soliton and the compact oval solution obtained by gluing two translating solitons approaching each other from time $-\infty$ from two opposite ends.
X.-J. Wang proved a series of remarkable results on the structure of convex ancient solutions to mean curvature flow. Some of his results do not appear to be widely known, however, possibly due to the technical nature of his arguments and his exploitation of methods which are not widely used in mean curvature flow. In this expository article, we present Wang's structure theory and some of its consequences. We shall simplify some of Wang's analysis by making use of the monotonicity formula and the differential Harnack inequality, and obtain an important additional structure result by exploiting…
In this article, we study complete Type I ancient Ricci flows with positive sectional curvature. Our main results are as follows: in the complete and noncompact case, all such ancient solutions must be noncollapsed on all scales; in the closed case, if the dimension is even, then all such ancient solutions must be noncollapsed on all scales. This furthermore gives a complete classification for three-dimensional noncompact Type I ancient solutions without assuming the noncollapsing condition.
