English

Ancient curve shortening flow in the disc with mixed boundary condition

Differential Geometry 2024-04-03 v1

Abstract

Given any non-central interior point oo of the unit disc DD, the diameter LL through oo is the union of two linear arcs emanating from oo which meet D\partial D orthogonally, the shorter of them stable and the longer unstable (under these boundary conditions). In each of the two half discs bounded by LL, we construct a convex eternal solution to curve shortening flow which fixes oo and meets D\partial D orthogonally, and evolves out of the unstable critical arc at t=t=-\infty and into the stable one at t=+t=+\infty. We then prove that these two (congruent) solutions are the only non-flat convex ancient solutions to the curve shortening flow satisfying the specified boundary conditions. We obtain analogous conclusions in the "degenerate" case oDo\in\partial D as well, although in this case the solution contracts to the point oo at a finite time with asymptotic shape that of a half Grim Reaper, thus providing an interesting example for which an embedded flow develops a collapsing singularity.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2404.01525,
  title  = {Ancient curve shortening flow in the disc with mixed boundary condition},
  author = {Mat Langford and Yuxing Liu and George McNamara},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2404.01525},
  year   = {2024}
}