We consider curve shortening flow of arbitrary codimension in an Euclidean background. We show that, close to a singularity, the flow is asymptotically planar, paralleling Altschuler's work in the case of space curves, and analyse the blow-up limits of the flow. Using these results, we then prove that the curve shortening flow of initial curves with an entropy bound converges to a round point in finite time.
We consider the area preserving curve shortening flow with Neumann free boundary conditions outside of a convex domain or at a straight line. We give a criterion on initial curves that guarantees the appearance of a singularity in finite time. We prove that the singularity is of type II. Furthermore, if these initial curves are convex, then an appropriate rescaling at the finite maximal time of existence yields a grim reaper or half a grim reaper as limit flow. We construct examples of initial curves satisfying the mentioned criterion.
In the present paper we carry out a systematic study about the flow of a spherical curve by the mean curvature flow with density in a 3-dimensional rotationally symmetric space with density $(M^3_w,\:g_w,\:ξ)$ where the density $ξ$ decomposes as sum of a radial part $φ$ and an angular part $ψ$. We analyse how either the parabolicity or the hyperbolicity of $(M^3_w,\:g_w)$ condition the behaviour of the flow when the solution goes to infinity.
In this paper, we study the curve shortening flow (CSF) on Riemann surfaces. We generalize Huisken's comparison function to Riemann surfaces and surfaces with conic singularities. We reprove the Gage-Hamilton-Grayson theorem on surfaces. We also prove that for embedded simple closed curves, CSF can not touch conic singularities with cone angles $\leq π$.
We define Type I singularities for the mean curvature flow associated to a density $ψ$ ($ψ$MCF) and describe the blow-up at singular time of these singularities. Special attention is paid to the case where the singularity come from the part of the $ψ$-curvature due to the density. We describe a family of curves whose evolution under $ψ$MCF (in a Riemannian surface of non-negative curvature with a density which is singular at a geodesic of the surface) produces only type I singularities and study the limits of their blow-ups.
We investigate the evolution of open curves with fixed endpoints under the curve shortening flow, which evolves curves in proportion to their curvature. Using a distance comparison of Huisken, we determine the long-term behavior of open curves with fixed endpoints evolving in certain convex domains on surfaces of constant curvature. Specifically, we show that such curves do not develop singularities, and evolve to geodesics.
We provide a condition for spatial curves which rules out the development of a type I singularity. The condition is that after the last time for which an inflection point develops, if the torsion is ever everywhere non-negative, the curve cannot develop a type I singularity.
A new isoperimetric estimate is proved for embedded closed curves evolving by curve shortening flow, normalized to have total length $2π$. The estimate bounds the length of any chord from below in terms of the arc length between its endpoints and elapsed time. Applying the estimate to short segments we deduce directly that the maximum curvature decays exponentially to 1. This gives a self-contained proof of Grayson's theorem which does not require the monotonicity formula or the classification of singularities.
We prove that a closed immersed plane curve with total curvature $2πm$ has entropy at least $m$ times the entropy of the embedded circle, as long as it generates a type I singularity under the curve shortening flow (CSF). We construct closed immersed plane curves of total curvature $2πm$ whose entropy is less than $m$ times the entropy of the embedded circle. As an application, we extend Colding-Minicozzi's notion of a generic mean curvature flow to closed immersed plane curves by constructing a piecewise CSF whose only singularities are embedded circles and type II singularities.
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 show that all closed $2$-dimensional singularities for higher codimension mean curvature flow that cannot be perturbed away have uniform entropy bounds and lie in a linear subspace of small dimension. The entropy and dimension of the subspace are both $\leq C\,(1+γ)$ for some universal constant $C$ and genus $γ$. These are the first general bounds on generic singularities in arbitrary codimension.
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.
Space curve motion describes dynamics of material defects or interfaces, can be found in image processing or vortex dynamics. This article analyses some properties of space curves evolved by the curve shortening flow. In contrast to the classical case of shrinking planar curves, space curves do not obey the Avoidance principle in general. They can lose their convexity or develop non-circular singularities even if they are simple. In the first part of the text, we show that even though the convexity of space curves is not preserved during the motion, their orthogonal projections remain convex. …
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 $R^4$.
We prove some epsilon regularity results for n-dimensional minimal two-valued Lipschitz graphs. The main theorems imply uniqueness of tangent cones and regularity of the singular set in a neighbourhood of any point at which at least one tangent cone is equal to a pair of transversely intersecting multiplicity one n-dimensional planes, and in a neighbourhood of any point at which at which at least one tangent cone is equal to a union of four distinct multiplicity one n-dimensional half-planes that meet along an (n-1) - dimensional axis. The key ingredient is a new Excess Improvement Lemma obtai…
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].
In this paper we prove that a certain class of embedded unknotted curves in $\mathbb{R}^3$ evolving under curve shortening flow do not form singularities Type II before collapsing to a point. Our proof uses tools of the minimal surface theory to study a suitable isoperimetric ratio.
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.
We prove that the preimage of a germ of a singular analytic hypersurface under a germ of a finite holomorphic map $g: (\mathbb{C}^n,0) \rightarrow (\mathbb{C}^n,0)$ is again singular. This provides a generalization of previous results of this nature by Ebenfelt-Rothschild [Comm. Anal. Geom. 15 (2007), no. 2, 491-507], Lebl [arXiv:0812.2498], and Denkowski [Manuscripta Math. 149 (2016), no. 1-2, 83-91]. The same statement is proved for pullbacks of singular codimension one holomorphic foliations.
We study holomorphic foliations with an affine homogeneous transverse structure. We give a friendly characterization of the case of transversely affine foliations in terms of matrix valued pairs of differential forms. This leads naturally to the study of the case of foliations with singularities. A first extension theorem is then proved in the generic singularities framework.
We study codimension one (transversally oriented) foliations $\fa$ on oriented closed manifolds $M$ having non-empty compact singular set $\sing(\fa)$ which is locally defined by Bott-Morse functions. We prove that if the transverse type of $\fa$ at each singular point is a center and $\fa$ has a compact leaf with finite fundamental group or a component of $\sing(\fa)$ has codimension $\ge 3$ and finite fundamental group, then all leaves of $\fa$ are compact and diffeomorphic, $\sing(\fa)$ consists of two connected components, and there is a Bott-Morse function $f:M \to [0,1]$ such that $f\col…
We show uniqueness of cylindrical blowups for mean curvature flow in all dimension and all codimension. Cylindrical singularities are known to be the most important; they are the most prevalent in any codimension. Mean curvature flow in higher codimension is a nonlinear parabolic system where many of the methods used for hypersurfaces do not apply and uniqueness of cylindrical blowups remained a major open problem. Our results imply regularity of the singular set for the system.
We study the mean curvature flow of smooth $n$-dimensional compact submanifolds with quadratic pinching in a Riemannian manifold $\mathcal{N}^{n+m}$. Our main focus is on the case of high codimension, $m\geq 2$. We establish a codimension estimate that shows in regions of high curvature, the submanifold becomes approximately codimension one in a quantifiable way. This estimate enables us to prove at a singular time of the flow, there exists a rescaling that converges to a smooth codimension-one limiting flow in Euclidean space. Under a cylindrical type pinching, this limiting flow is weakly co…
We consider singularities of frontal surfaces of corank one and finite frontal codimension. We look at the classification under left-right-equivalence and introduce the notion of frontalisation for singularities of fold type. We define the cuspidal and the transverse double point curves and prove that the frontal has finite codimension if and only if both curves are reduced. Finally, we also discuss about the frontal versions of the Marar-Mond formulas and the Mond's conjecture.
Chen's flow is a fourth-order curvature flow motivated by the spectral decomposition of immersions, a program classically pushed by B.-Y. Chen since the 1970s. In curvature flow terms the flow sits at the critical level of scaling together with the most popular extrinsic fourth-order curvature flow, the Willmore and surface diffusion flows. Unlike them however the famous Chen conjecture indicates that there should be no stationary nonminimal data, and so in particular the flow should drive all closed submanifolds to singularities. We investigate this idea, proving that (1) closed data becomes …
We consider embedded, smooth curves in the plane which are either closed or asymptotic to two lines. We study their behaviour under curve shortening flow with a global forcing term. Firstly, we prove an analogue to Huisken's distance comparison principle for curve shortening flow for initial curves whose local total curvature does not lie below $-π$, and show that this condition is sharp. Secondly, for bounded forcing terms, we exclude singularities in finite time. Thirdly, for immortal flows of closed curves whose forcing terms provide non-vanishing enclosed area and bounded length, we show c…
We consider smooth 1-parameter families of plane curves tangent to a semicubic parabola, when the curvature radius of their curves at the tangency point vanishes at the cusp point. We find the $\A$-normal form of these families, their envelopes and local patterns near the cusp. We obtain a new codimension 2 singularity of envelopes (two transversal semicubic cusps), and we describe its perestroikas under generic small deformations.
It is given the diffeomorphism classification on generic singularities of tangent varieties to curves with arbitrary codimension in a projective space. The generic classifications are performed in terms of certain geometric structures and differential systems on flag manifolds, via several techniques in differentiable algebra. It is provided also the generic diffeomorphism classification of singularities on tangent varieties to contact-integral curves in the standard contact projective space. Moreover we give basic results on the classification of singularities of tangent varieties to generic …
