We consider the gradient flow of hypersurfaces immersed in the Euclidean space associated to geometric energy functionals.
We show that for particular functionals depending by higher covariant derivatives of the curvature, singularities in finite time cannot occur during the evolution.
Such geometric functionals are related to similar ones proposed by Ennio De Giorgi, who conjectured for them an analogous regularity result.
Let $(M^{n+1},g,e^{-f}dμ)$ be a complete smooth metric measure space with $2\leq n\leq 6$ and Bakry-Émery Ricci curvature bounded below by a positive constant. We prove a smooth compactness theorem for the space of complete embedded $f$-minimal hypersurfaces in $M$ with uniform upper bounds on $f$-index and weighted volume. As a corollary, we obtain a smooth compactness theorem for the space of embedded self-shrinkers in $\mathbb{R}^{n+1}$ with $2\leq n\leq 6$. We also prove some estimates on the $f$-index of $f$-minimal hypersurfaces, and give a conformal structure of $f$-minimal surface with…
We consider convex hypersurfaces for which the ratio of principal curvatures at each point is bounded by a function of the maximum principal curvature with limit 1 at infinity. We prove that the ratio of circumradius to inradius is bounded by a function of the circumradius with limit 1 at zero. We apply this result to the motion of hypersurfaces by arbitrary speeds which are smooth homogeneous functions of the principal curvatures of degree greater than one. For smooth, strictly convex initial hypersurfaces with ratio of principal curvatures sufficiently close to one at each point, we prove th…
We consider compact convex hypersurfaces contracting by functions of their curvature. Under the mean curvature flow, uniformly convex smooth initial hypersurfaces evolve to remain smooth and uniformly convex, and contract to points after finite time. The same holds if the initial data is only weakly convex or non-smooth, and the limiting shape at the final time is spherical. We provide a surprisingly large family of flows for which such results fail, by a variety of mechanisms: Uniformly convex hypersurfaces may become non-convex, and smooth ones may develop curvature singularities; even where…
In this paper we study the main geometric properties of the Carnot-Carathéodory (abbreviated CC) distance $\dc$ in the setting of $k$-step sub-Riemannian Carnot groups from many different points of view. An extensive study of the so-called normal CC-geodesics is given. We state and prove some related variational formulae and we find suitable Jacobi-type equations for normal CC-geodesics. One of our main results is a sub-Riemannian version of the Gauss Lemma. We show the existence of the metric normal for smooth non-characteristic hypersurfaces. We also compute the sub-Riemannian exponential ma…
In this article, we establish a relationship between geometric quantities of a hypersurface restricted to its boundary, and the geometric quantities of its boundary as a hypersurface of the boundary of the ball. As a first application, we prove that the quantity of umbilical points of a free boundary surface in the unit ball counted with multiplicities depend only on its topology; moreover, we obtain as consequences that free boundary surfaces are annuli if, and only if, they have no umbilical points, and a new proof of the Nitsche Theorem. Secondly, we prove two geometric integral inequalitie…
In this paper we construct all smooth torus fibres of the generalized special Lagrangian torus fibrations for Calabi-Yau hypersurfaces in toric varieties near the large complex limit.
In this article, we will use the harmonic mean curvature flow to prove a new class of Alexandrov-Fenchel type inequalities for strictly convex hypersurfaces in hyperbolic space in terms of total curvature, which is the integral of Gaussian curvature on the hypersurface. We will also use the harmonic mean curvature flow to prove a new class of geometric inequalities for horospherically convex hypersurfaces in hyperbolic space. Using these new Alexandrov-Fenchel type inequalities and the inverse mean curvature flow, we obtain an Alexandrov-Fenchel inequality for strictly convex hypersurfaces in …
Let $N$ be a Riemannian manifold and consider a stationary union of three or more $C^{1,μ}$ hypersurfaces-with-boundary $M_k$ in $N$ with a common boundary $Γ$. We show that if $N$ is smooth, then $Γ$ is smooth and each $M_k$ is smooth up to $Γ$ (real analytic in the case $N$ is real analytic). Consequently we strengthen a result of Wickramasekera to conclude that under the stronger hypothesis that $V$ is a stationary, stable, integral $n$-varifold in an $(n+1)$-dimensional, smooth (real analytic) Riemannian manifold such that the support of $\|V\|$ is nowhere locally the union of three or mor…
In this paper we construct smooth Riemannian metrics on the sphere which admit smooth Zoll families of minimal hypersurfaces. This generalizes a theorem of Guillemin for the case of geodesics. The proof uses the Nash-Moser Inverse Function Theorem in the tame maps setting of Hamilton. This answers a question of Yau on perturbations of minimal hypersurfaces in positive Ricci curvature. We also consider the case of the projective space and characterize those metrics on the sphere with minimal equators.
If $ψ:M^n\to \mathbb{R}^{n+1}$ is a smooth immersed closed hypersurface, we consider the functional $\mathcal{F}_m(ψ) = \int_M 1 + |\nabla^m ν|^2 \, dμ$, where $ν$ is a local unit normal vector along $ψ$, $\nabla$ is the Levi-Civita connection of the Riemannian manifold $(M,g)$, with $g$ the pull-back metric induced by the immersion and $μ$ the associated volume measure. We prove that if $m>\lfloor n/2 \rfloor$ then the unique globally defined smooth solution to the $L^2$-gradient flow of $\mathcal{F}_m$, for every initial hypersurface, smoothly converges asymptotically to a critical point of …
In this expository paper, we discuss some of the main geometric inequalities for minimal hypersurfaces. These include the classical monotonicity formula, the Alexander-Osserman conjecture, the isoperimetric inequality for minimal surfaces, and the Michael-Simon Sobolev inequality.
We show the existence of a smooth solution for the flow deformed by the square root of the scalar curvature multiplied by a positive anisotropic factor $ψ$ given a strictly convex initial hypersurface in Euclidean space suitably pinched. We also prove the convergence of rescaled surfaces to a smooth limit manifold which is a round sphere. In dimension two, it is shown that, with a volume preserving rescaling, the limit profile satisfies a soliton equation.
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…
We prove rigidity for hypersurfaces with boundary in the unit $(n+1)$-sphere with scalar curvature bounded below by $n(n-1)$. Under appropriate boundary conditions, the hypersurfaces are shown to be part of the equatorial spheres. The lower bound $n(n-1)$ is critical in the sense that the hypersurface may contain geodesic points and some natural differential operators are fully degenerate at geodesic points. We overcome the difficulty by studying the geometry of level sets of a height function, via new geometric inequalities. Some rigidity results of hyperplanes and generalized cylinders are a…
We use the inverse mean curvature flow with a free boundary perpendicular to the sphere to prove a geometric inequality involving the Willmore energy for convex hypersurfaces of dimension $n\geq 3$ with boundary on the sphere.
In the present paper, firstly we obtain the general expression of canal hypersurfaces in Euclidean n-space and deal with canal hypersurfaces in Euclidean 4-space E4. We compute Gauss map, Gaussian curvature and mean curvature of canal hypersurfaces in E4 and obtain an important relation between the mean and Gaussian curvatures as 3Hrho = Krho^3-2. We prove that, the flat canal hypersurfaces in Euclidean 4-space are only circular hypercylinders or circular hypercones and minimal canal hypersurfaces are only generalized catenoids. Also, we state the expression of tubular hypersurfaces in Euclide…
Given a globally hyperbolic spacetime $M$, we show the existence of a {\em smooth spacelike} Cauchy hypersurface $S$ and, thus, a global diffeomorphism between $M$ and $\R \times S$.
We prove two weighted geometric inequalities that hold for strictly mean convex and star-shaped hypersurfaces in Euclidean space. The first one involves the weighted area and the area of the hypersurface and also the volume of the region enclosed by the hypersurface. The second one involves the total weighted mean curvature and the area of the hypersurface. Versions of the first inequality for the sphere and for the adS-Reissner-Nordström manifold are proven. We end with an example of a convex surface for which the ratio between the polar moment of inertia and the square of the area is less th…
We show the existence of a deformation process of hypersurfaces from a product space $M_1\times R$ into another product space $M_2\times R$ such that the relation of the principal curvatures of the deformed hypersurfaces can be controlled in terms of the sectional curvatures or Ricci curvatures of $M_1$ and $M_2$. In this way, we obtain barriers which are used for proving existence or non existence of hypersurfaces with prescribed curvatures in a general product space $M\times R$.
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 …
For a mean curvature flow of complete graphical hypersurfaces $M_{t}=\operatorname{graph} u(\cdot,t)$ defined over domains $Ω_{t}$, the enveloping cylinder is $\partialΩ_{t}\times\mathbb{R}$. We prove the smooth convergence of $M_{t}-h\,e_{n+1}$ to the enveloping cylinder under certain circumstances. Moreover, we give examples demonstrating that there is no uniform curvature bound in terms of the inital curvature and the geometry of $Ω_{t}$. Furthermore, we provide an example where the hypersurface increasingly oscillates towards infinity in both space and time. It has unbounded curvature at a…
Recently, folk questions on the smoothability of Cauchy hypersurfaces and time functions of a globally hyperbolic spacetime M, have been solved. Here we give further results, applicable to several problems: (1) Any compact spacelike acausal submanifold H with boundary can be extended to a spacelike Cauchy hypersurface S. If H were only achronal, counterexamples to the smooth extension exist, but a continuous extension (in fact, valid for any compact achronal subset K) is still possible. (2) Given any spacelike Cauchy hypersurface S, a Cauchy temporal function T (i.e., a smooth function with pa…
We prove that, for a generic set of smooth prescription functions $h$ on a closed ambient manifold, there always exists a nontrivial, smooth, closed hypersurface of prescribed mean curvature $h$. The solution is either an embedded minimal hypersurface with integer multiplicity, or a non-minimal almost embedded hypersurface of multiplicity one. More precisely, we show that our previous min-max theory, developed for constant mean curvature hypersurfaces, can be extended to construct min-max prescribed mean curvature hypersurfaces for certain classes of prescription function, including smooth Mor…
In this paper we describe all rotation $H$-hypersurfaces in $H^n \times R$ and use them as barriers to prove existence and characterization of certain vertical $H$-graphs and to give symmetry and uniqueness results for compact $H$-hypersurfaces whose boundary is one or two parallel submanifolds in slices. We also describe examples of translation $H$-hypersurfaces in $H^n \times R$. For $n>2$ we obtain a complete embedded translation hypersurface generated by a compact, simple, strictly convex curve. When $0 < H < \frac{n-1}{n}$ we obtain a complete non-entire vertical graph over the non-mean c…
The existence of \emph{weak conical Kähler-Einstein} metrics along smooth hypersurfaces with angle between $0$ and $2π$ is obtained by studying a smooth continuity method and a \emph{local Moser's iteration} technique. In the case of negative and zero Ricci curvature, the $C^0$ estimate is unobstructed; while in the case of positive Ricci curvature, the $C^0$ estimate obstructed by the properness of the \emph{twisted K-Energy}. As soon as the $C^0$ estimate is achieved, the local Moser iteration could improve the \emph{rough bound} on the approximations to a \emph{uniform $C^2$ bound}, thus pr…
In this paper we show that every area minimizing cone C^{n-1} in R^n can be approximated by entirely smooth area minimizing hypersurfaces. This extensively uses hyperbolic unfoldings of such hypersurfaces and the resulting potential theory for the Jacobi field operator. Applications include the splitting theorem in scalar curvature geometry saying that any (n-1)-dim. homology class of a compact manifold M^n with positive scalar curvature can be represented by a smooth (!) compact hypersurface that admits a positive scalar curvature metric.
This paper is related to the problem of finding a good notion of rectifiability in sub-Riemannian geometry. In particular, we study which kind of results can be expected for smooth hypersurfaces in Carnot groups. Our main contribution will be a consequence of the following result: there exists a $C^{\infty}$ hypersurface $S$ without characteristic points that has uncountably many pairwise non-isomorphic tangent groups on every positive-measure subset. The example is found in a Carnot group of topological dimension 8, it has Hausdorff dimension 12 and so we use on it the Hausdorff measure $\mat…
In this paper, geometric characterizations of conformally flat and radially flat hypersurfaces in $\mathbb{S}^n \times \mathbb{R}$ and $\mathbb{H}^n \times \mathbb{R}$ are given by means of their extrinsic geometry. Under suitable conditions on the shape operator, we classify conformally flat hypersurfaces in terms of rotation hypersurfaces. In addition, a close relation between radially flat hypersurfaces and semi-parallel hypersurfaces is established. These results lead to geometric descriptions of hypersurfaces with special intrinsic structures, such as Einstein metrics, Ricci solitons and …
We prove that every smooth rigid spherical hypersurface in ${\mathbb C}^2$ is in fact real-analytic. As an application of this result, it follows that the classification of real-analytic rigid spherical hypersurfaces in ${\mathbb C}^2$ found by V. Ezhov and G. Schmalz applies in the smooth case.
In this paper we prove that every smooth complete closed complex hypersurface in the open unit ball $\mathbb{B}_n$ of $\mathbb{C}^n$ $(n\ge 2)$ is a level set of a noncritical holomorphic function on $\mathbb{B}_n$ all of whose level sets are complete. This shows that $\mathbb{B}_n$ admits a nonsingular holomorphic foliation by smooth complete closed complex hypersurfaces and, what is the main point, that every hypersurface in $\mathbb{B}_n$ of this type can be embedded into such a foliation. We establish a more general result in which neither completeness nor smoothness of the given hypersurf…
In this paper we prove the following theorem. Main Theorem. Let n >= 3 and m >= 3n/2 +7. Then there exists no C^m Levi-flat real hypersurface M in P_n. The condition that M is Levi-flat means that when M is locally defined by the vanishing of a C^m real-valued function f, at every point of M the restriction of d d-bar f to the complex tangent space of M is identically zero. The case of the nonexistence of C^\infty Levi-flat real hypersurface in P_2 is motivated by problems in dynamical systems in P_2.
Some analysis on the Lorentzian distance in a spacetime with controlled sectional (or Ricci) curvatures is done. In particular, we focus on the study of the restriction of such distance to a spacelike hypersurface satisfying the Omori-Yau maximum principle. As a consequence, and under appropriate hypotheses on the (sectional or Ricci) curvatures of the ambient spacetime, we obtain sharp estimates for the mean curvature of those hypersurfaces. Moreover, we also give a suficient condition for its hyperbolicity.
We study $λ$-hypersurfaces that are critical points of a Gaussian weighted area functional $\int_Σ e^{-\frac{|x|^2}{4}}dA$ for compact variations that preserve weighted volume. First, we prove various gap and rigidity theorems for complete $λ$-hypersurfaces in terms of the norm of the second fundamental form $|A|$. Second, we show that in one dimension, the only smooth complete and embedded $λ$-hypersurfaces in $\mathbb{R}^2$ with $λ\geq 0$ are lines and round circles. Moreover, we establish a Bernstein type theorem for $λ$-hypersurfaces which states that smooth $λ$-hypersurfaces that are enti…
An anisotropic surface energy is the integral of an energy density that depends on the normal at each point over the considered surface, and it is a generalization of surface area. The minimizer of such an energy among all closed surfaces enclosing the same volume is unique and it is (up to rescaling) so-called the Wulff shape. We prove that, unlike the isotropic case, there exists an anisotropic energy density function such that there exist closed embedded equilibrium surfaces with genus zero in the three-dimensional Euclidean space each of which is not (any homothety and translation of) the …
Let $f:M\ra \erre^{m+1}$ be an isometrically immersed hypersurface. In this paper, we exploit recent results due to the authors in \cite{bimari} to analyze the stability of the differential operator $L_r$ associated with the $r$-th Newton tensor of $f$. This appears in the Jacobi operator for the variational problem of minimizing the $r$-mean curvature $H_r$. Two natural applications are found. The first one ensures that, under the mild condition that the integral of $H_r$ over geodesic spheres grows sufficiently fast, the Gauss map meets each equator of $\esse^m$ infinitely many times. The se…
We consider a smooth Euclidean solid cone endowed with a smooth homogeneous density function used to weight Euclidean volume and hypersurface area. By assuming convexity of the cone and a curvature-dimension condition we prove that the unique compact, orientable, second order minima of the weighted area under variations preserving the weighted volume and with free boundary in the boundary of the cone are intersections with the cone of round spheres centered at the vertex.
We prove some stability results for smooth H-minimal hypersurfaces immersed in a sub-Riemannian k-step Carnot group G. The main tools are the formulas for the 1st and 2nd variation of the H-perimeter measure.
