Nonlocal curvature flows

This paper aims at building a unified framework to deal with a wide class of local and nonlocal translation-invariant geometric flows. First, we introduce a class of generalized curvatures, and prove the existence and uniqueness for the level set formulation of the corresponding geometric flows. We then introduce a class of generalized perimeters, whose first variation is an admissible generalized curvature. Within this class, we implement a minimizing movements scheme and we prove that it approximates the viscosity solution of the corresponding level set PDE. We also describe several examples and applications. Besides recovering and presenting in a unified way existence, uniqueness, and approximation results for several geometric motions already studied and scattered in the literature, the theory developed in this paper allows us to establish also new results

Multiclass Data Segmentation using Diffuse Interface Methods on Graphs

We present two graph-based algorithms for multiclass segmentation of high-dimensional data. The algorithms use a diffuse interface model based on the Ginzburg-Landau functional, related to total variation compressed sensing and image processing. A multiclass extension is introduced using the Gibbs simplex, with the functional's double-well potential modified to handle the multiclass case. The first algorithm minimizes the functional using a convex splitting numerical scheme. The second algorithm is a uses a graph adaptation of the classical numerical Merriman-Bence-Osher (MBO) scheme, which alternates between diffusion and thresholding. We demonstrate the performance of both algorithms experimentally on synthetic data, grayscale and color images, and several benchmark data sets such as MNIST, COIL and WebKB. We also make use of fast numerical solvers for finding the eigenvectors and eigenvalues of the graph Laplacian, and take advantage of the sparsity of the matrix. Experiments indicate that the results are competitive with or better than the current state-of-the-art multiclass segmentation algorithms.Comment: 14 page

Periodic total variation flow of non-divergence type in Rn

We introduce a new notion of viscosity solutions for a class of very singular nonlinear parabolic problems of non-divergence form in a periodic domain of arbitrary dimension, whose diffusion on flat parts with zero slope is so strong that it becomes a nonlocal quantity. The problems include the classical total variation flow and a motion of a surface by a crystalline mean curvature. We establish a comparison principle, the stability under approximation by regularized parabolic problems, and an existence theorem for general continuous initial data.Comment: 36 pages, 2 figure

A Non-Local Mean Curvature Flow and its semi-implicit time-discrete approximation

We address in this paper the study of a geometric evolution, corresponding to a curvature which is non-local and singular at the origin. The curvature represents the first variation of the energy recently proposed as a variant of the standard perimeter penalization for the denoising of nonsmooth curves. To deal with such degeneracies, we first give an abstract existence and uniqueness result for viscosity solutions of non-local degenerate Hamiltonians, satisfying suitable continuity assumption with respect to Kuratowsky convergence of the level sets. This abstract setting applies to an approximated flow. Then, by the method of minimizing movements, we also build an "exact" curvature flow, and we illustrate some examples, comparing the results with the standard mean curvature flow

Finite element algorithms for nonlocal minimal graphs

We discuss computational and qualitative aspects of the fractional Plateau and the prescribed fractional mean curvature problems on bounded domains subject to exterior data being a subgraph. We recast these problems in terms of energy minimization, and we discretize the latter with piecewise linear finite elements. For the computation of the discrete solutions, we propose and study a gradient flow and a Newton scheme, and we quantify the effect of Dirichlet data truncation. We also present a wide variety of numerical experiments that illustrate qualitative and quantitative features of fractional minimal graphs and the associated discrete problems

Neckpinch singularities in fractional mean curvature flows

In this paper we consider the evolution of sets by a fractional mean curvature flow. Our main result states that for any dimension $n > 2$, there exists an embedded surface in $\mathbb R^n$ evolving by fractional mean curvature flow, which developes a singularity before it can shrink to a point. When $n > 3$ this result generalizes the analogue result of Grayson for the classical mean curvature flow. Interestingly, when $n = 2$, our result provides instead a counterexample in the nonlocal framework to the well known Grayson Theorem, which states that any smooth embedded curve in the plane evolving by (classical) MCF shrinks to a point