Vortex filament equation in a Riemannian manifold. (Q1411701)

The vortex filament equation in the three-dimensional Euclidean space is the equation of a curve \(\gamma:\mathbb{R}^2\to \mathbb{R}^3, \gamma=\gamma(t,x)\) \[ \gamma_t=\gamma_x\times\gamma_{xx},\quad | \gamma_x| =1, \] where \(\times\) is the exterior product. In [\textit{T. Nishiyama} and \textit{A. Tani}, SIAM J. Math. Anal. 27, 1015--1023 (1996; Zbl 0858.35100)], the authors proved the existence of a solution for this equation by using a perturbation to a fourth order parabolic equation. Then, \textit{N. Koiso}, in [Osaka J. Math. 34, 199--214 (1997; Zbl 0926.53002)], gave another proof using a perturbation to a second order parabolic equation. In the paper under review the author defines the vortex filament equation in a general three-dimensional oriented Riemannian manifold \((M,g)\), \[ \gamma_t=\gamma_x\times\nabla_x\gamma_{x},\quad | \gamma_x| =1, \] where \(\nabla\) denotes the covariant differentiation. By perturbing the equation of \(\gamma\) to a parabolic equation \[ \gamma_t=\gamma_x\times\nabla_x\gamma_{x}+\varepsilon \nabla_x\gamma_{x} \] and estimating \(\gamma\) and \(| \gamma_x| ^2\) simultaneously, the author proves the existence of a unique short time solution of the vortex filament equation for any closed initial curve \(\gamma_0(x)\) with \(| \nabla_{x}\gamma_{0}| =1\).