Nonlinear stability of stationary solutions for curvature flow with triple junction (Q1048686)

The authors analyze the motion of a network of three planar curves with a speed proportional to the curvature of the arcs, having perpendicular intersections with the outer boundary and a common intersection at a triple junction. The motion of curves under the curvature flow has been widely studied in the past. Less is known about the evolution of networks under the curvature. In this case the arcs in the network evolve in the normal direction with a speed proportional to the curvature of the arcs. At intersections with an outer boundary and at triple junctions boundary conditions have to hold. At the outer boundary one can prescribe the position or the angle with the outer boundary. At the triple junction Young's law, a force balance, leads to angle conditions. The paper considers the stability of stationary solutions to the curvature flow with a triple junction when the natural angle condition of 90 degrees at the outer boundary is prescribed. For this case a linear stability criterion has been derived by Ikota and Yanagida. As a main result of the paper it was demonstrated that a linear stability criterion due to Ikota and Yanagida is also sufficient for nonlinear stability. It is also proved the local and global existence of classical smooth solutions as well as various energy estimates. In addition, the authors prove exponential stabilization of an evolving network starting from the vicinity of a linearly stable stationary network.