The topology of hypersurfaces moving by mean curvature
type: Item
instance of: scholarly article
title: The topology of hypersurfaces moving by mean curvature
zbMATH Open document ID: 0858.58047
author: Brian White
published in: Communications in Analysis and Geometry
publication date: 1997-03-25T00:00:00Z
review text: The levels \(M_t\) of the mean curvature flow may become singular as \(t\to T\). Beyond the parameter \(T\) there are still weak solutions, the so-called weak mean curvature flow. This paper addresses the question: what topological changes of \(M_t\) are possible? Roughly, the main result states that two distinct connected components of the complement \(W [0]\) of \(M_0\) cannot become connected together later, and that connected components cannot appear out of nowhere. This is expressed by an induced isomorphism in the homology \(H_0 (W [0]) \to H_0 (W[0,T])\). Similarly, every loop in \(W[0,T]\) is homotopic to a loop in \(W[0]\). Furthermore, if the ambient space is an \((n+1)\)-dimensional Riemannian manifold with Ricci curvature bounded below, then there is a similar result for the homologies \(H_n\) and \(H_{n-1}\). A number of examples illustrate various topology changes which actually can occur after singularities of the flow.
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 58J35
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 37C10
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 53C21
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 53C42
zbMATH DE Number: 856919
zbMATH Keywords: maximum principle
zbMATH Keywords: level set flow
zbMATH Keywords: mean curvature flow
reviewed by: Wolfgang Kühnel
MaRDI profile type: Publication
DOI: 10.4310/CAG.1995.V3.N2.A5
description: scientific article; zbMATH DE number 856919