The hyperbolic mean curvature flow (Q2517723)

The aim of the paper is to introduce and study a geometric evolution equation of hyperbolic type which describes the flow, \[ F: M^n\times [0,T) \to \mathbb{R}^{n+1}, T>0, \] of an immersed hypersurface \(M\) in the Euclidean space. This evolution equation, which is referred to as the hyperbolic mean curvature flow (HMCF), is derived from a geometric action functional based on the local energy density, \(e=\frac{1}{2}\left( \left| \frac{d}{dt}F\right|^2+n\right)\). If the initial velocity is normal to the hypersurface, then it remains normal during the evolution and the flow equation takes a simple form (normalized HMCF) : \[ \frac{d^2F}{dt^2} = e H\nu -\nabla e, \] where \(H\) is the mean curvature of the hypersurface and \(\nu\) denotes its ``inner'' unit normal. The authors derive several conservation laws or balance laws for HMCF. A large section is devoted to the important case of hypersurfaces represented as entire graphs over \(\mathbb{R}^n\): the authors demonstrate the well-posedness of the HMCF equation in Sobolev spaces, introduce a notion of weak solutions and prove the uniqueness of a classical solution within the class of weak solutions; moreover a global-in-time existence of weak solutions with bounded variation is established for one-dimensional graphs. As for the normalized HMCF, the authors prove a local-in-time existence result for the evolution of compact hypersurfaces. Moreover they provide some criteria ensuring that the flow will blow-up in finite time, due to the formation of geometric singularities or shock waves.