Gauss maps of the mean curvature flow (Q1429226)

The mean curvature flow (MCF) is an evolution equation under which a submanifold \(\Sigma^n\) deforms in the direction of its mean curvature vector field \(H\); in other words, it is a family of immersions \(F\colon\Sigma^n\times[0,T)\to{\mathbb R}^{n+m}\) such that \({d\over dt}F(x,t)=H(x,t)\) and \(F_0=F\). In this paper, the author shows that, in the compact case, the Gauss maps \(\gamma\colon (\Sigma^n,g_t)\to G(n,m)\) form a harmonic heat flow with respect to the time-dependent induced metric \(g_t\). As a consequence, it is deduced that any convex function on \(G(n,m)\) produces a subsolution of the nonlinear heat equation on \((\Sigma,g_t)\). It is natural to study the effect of MCF on a Lagrangian submanifold since it preserves the Lagrangian constraint. On the other hand the Lagrangian MCF is that makes the Gauss map evolve according to the harmonic map heat flow. Here the author gives an alternative proof of this result; it is obtained as a consequence of a more general result showing that the condition that the image of the Gauss map lies in a totally geodesic submanifold of \(G(n,m)\) is preserved by the mean curvature flow.