English

Classification of ancient finite-entropy curve shortening flows

Differential Geometry 2026-03-11 v1

Abstract

We prove that any ancient smooth embedded finite-entropy curve shortening flow is one of the following: a static line, a shrinking circle, a paper clip, a translating grim reaper, or a graphical ancient trombone. An ancient trombone is an immersed ancient flow, either compact or non-compact, obtained by gluing together mm translating grim reaper curves. For each mm, there exists a (2m1)(2m-1)-parameter family of graphical ancient trombones, up to rigid motions and time shifts as constructed by Angenent-You. In particular, our result implies that any compact ancient smooth embedded finite-entropy flow is convex. Moreover, any non-compact ancient smooth embedded finite-entropy flow is either a static line or a complete graph over a fixed open interval.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2603.09112,
  title  = {Classification of ancient finite-entropy curve shortening flows},
  author = {Kyeongsu Choi and Dong-Hwi Seo and Wei-Bo Su and Kai-Wei Zhao},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2603.09112},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

27 pages, 5 figures