In this paper, we consider the $L^2$-gradient flow for the modified $p$-elastic energy defined on planar closed curves. We formulate a notion of weak solution for the flow and prove the existence of global-in-time weak solutions with $p ge 2$ for ini
tial curves in the energy space via minimizing movements. Moreover, we prove the existence of unique global-in-time solutions to the flow with $p=2$ and obtain their subconvergence to an elastica as $t to infty$.
We study the evolution of compact convex curves in two-dimensional space forms. The normal speed is given by the difference of the weighted inverse curvature with the support function, and in the case where the ambient space is the Euclidean plane, i
s equivalent to the standard inverse curvature flow. We prove that solutions exist for all time and converge exponentially fast in the smooth topology to a standard round geodesic circle. This has a number of consequences: first, to prove the isoperimetricinequality; second, to establish a range of weighted geometric inequalities; and third, to give a counterexample to the $n=2$ case of a conjecture of Gir~ao-Pinheiro.
In this article we consider the length functional defined on the space of immersed planar curves. The $L^2(ds)$ Riemannian metric gives rise to the curve shortening flow as the gradient flow of the length functional. Motivated by the triviality of th
e metric topology in this space, we consider the gradient flow of the length functional with respect to the $H^1(ds)$-metric. Circles with radius $r_0$ shrink with $r(t) = sqrt{W(e^{c-2t})}$ under the flow, where $W$ is the Lambert $W$ function and $c = r_0^2 + log r_0^2$. We conduct a thorough study of this flow, giving existence of eternal solutions and convergence for general initial data, preservation of regularity in various spaces, qualitative properties of the flow after an appropriate rescaling, and numerical simulations.
In this paper we consider the steepest descent $L^2$-gradient flow of the entropy functional. The flow expands convex curves, with the radius of an initial circle growing like the square root of time. Our main result is that, for any initial curve (e
ither immersed locally convex of class $C^2$ or embedded of class $W^{2,2}$ bounding a convex domain), the flow converges smoothly to a round expanding multiply-covered circle.
A recent article by the first two authors together with B Andrews and V-M Wheeler considered the so-called `ideal curve flow, a sixth order curvature flow that seeks to deform closed planar curves to curves with least variation of total geodesic curv
ature in the $L^2$ sense. Critical in the analysis there was a length bound on the evolving curves. It is natural to suspect therefore that the length-constrained ideal curve flow should permit a more straightforward analysis, at least in the case of small initial `energy. In this article we show this is indeed the case, with suitable initial data providing a flow that exists for all time and converges smoothly and exponentially to a multiply-covered round circle of the same length and winding number as the initial curve.
In this article we study Chens flow of curves from theoreical and numerical perspectives. We investigate two settings: that of closed immersed $omega$-circles, and immersed lines satisfying a cocompactness condition. In each of the settings our goal
is to find geometric conditions that allow us to understand the global behaviour of the flow: for the cocompact case, the condition is straightforward and the argument is largely standard. For the closed case however, the argument is quite complex. The flow shrinks every initial curve to a point if it does not become singular beforehand, and we must identify a condition to ensure this behaviour as well as identify the point in order to perform the requisite rescaling. We are able to successfully conduct a full analysis of the rescaling under a curvature condition. The analysis resembles the case of the mean curvature flow more than other fourth-order curvature flow such as the elastic flow or the curve diffusion flow, despite the lack of maximum and comparison principles. Our work is informed by a numerical study of the flow, and we include a section that explains the algorithms used and gives some further simulations.
In this note we establish exponentially fast smooth convergence for global curve diffusion flows, and discuss open problems relating embeddedness to global existence (Gigas conjecture) and the shape of Type I singularities (Chous conjecture).
We consider the parabolic polyharmonic diffusion and $L^2$-gradient flows of the $m$-th arclength derivative of curvature for regular closed curves evolving with generalised Neumann boundary conditions. In the polyharmonic case, we prove that if the
curvature of the initial curve is small in $L^2$, then the evolving curve converges exponentially in the $C^infty$ topology to a straight horizontal line segment. The same behaviour is shown for the $L^2$-gradient flow provided the energy of the initial curve is sufficiently small. In each case the smallness conditions depend only on $m$.
We show that any initial closed curve suitably close to a circle flows under length-constrained curve diffusion to a round circle in infinite time with exponential convergence. We provide an estimate on the total length of time for which such curves
are not strictly convex. We further show that there are no closed translating solutions to the flow and that the only closed rotators are circles.
We consider surfaces with boundary satisfying a sixth order nonlinear elliptic partial differential equation corresponding to extremising the $L^2$-norm of the gradient of the mean curvature. We show that such surfaces with small $L^2$-norm of the se
cond fundamental form and satisfying so-called `flat boundary conditions are necessarily planar.
