Self-similar solutions to the mean curvature flow in R3\mathbb{R}^{3}

In this paper we make an analysis of self-similar solutions for the mean curvature flow (MCF) by surfaces of revolution and ruled surfaces in $\mathbb{R}^{3}$. We prove that self-similar solutions of the MCF by non-cylindrival surfaces and conical surfaces in $\mathbb{R}^{3}$ are trivial. Moreover, we characterize the self-similar solutions of the MCF by surfaces of revolutions under a homothetic helicoidal motion in $\mathbb{R}^{3}$ in terms of the curvature of the generating curve. Finally, we characterize the self-similar solutions for the MCF by cylindrical surfaces under a homothetic helicoidal motion in $\mathbb{R}^3$. Explicit families of exact solutions for the MCF by cylindrical surfaces in $\mathbb{R}^{3}$ are also given

Self-shrinkers of the mean curvature flow in arbitrary codimension

For hypersurfaces of dimension greater than one, Huisken showed that compact self-shrinkers of the mean curvature flow with positive scalar mean curvature are spheres. We will prove the following extension: A compact self-similar solution in arbitrary codimension and of dimension greater than one is spherical, i.e. contained in a sphere, if and only if the mean curvature vector \be H\ee is non-vanishing and the principal normal \be\nu\ee is parallel in the normal bundle. We also give a classification of complete noncompact self-shrinkers of that type.Comment: 19 pages, 1 figur

Mean curvature flow with free boundary outside a hypersphere

The purpose of this paper is twofold: firstly, to establish sufficient conditions under which the mean curvature flow supported on a hypersphere with exterior Dirichlet boundary exists globally in time and converges to a minimal surface, and secondly, to illustrate the application of Killing vector fields in the preservation of graphicality for the mean curvature flow with free boundary. To this end we focus on the mean curvature flow of a topological annulus with inner boundary meeting a standard n-sphere in \R^{n+1} perpendicularly and outer boundary fixed to an (n-1)-sphere with radius R>1 at a fixed height h. We call this the \emph{sphere problem}. Our work is set in the context of graphical mean curvature flow with either symmetry or mean concavity/convexity restrictions. For rotationally symmetric initial data we obtain, depending on the exact configuration of the initial graph, either long time existence and convergence to a minimal hypersurface with boundary or the development of a finite-time curvature singularity. With reflectively symmetric initial data we are able to use Killing vector fields to preserve graphicality of the flow and uniformly bound the mean curvature pointwise along the flow. Finally we prove that the mean curvature flow of an initially mean concave/convex graphical surface exists globally in time and converges to a piece of a minimal surface.Comment: 23 page