Worn stones with flat sides all time regularity of the interface (Q1882741)

This paper is concerned with the regularity of the free-boundary problem associated to the Gauss curvature flow with flat sides. The surface evolves by the flow \[ \frac{\partial P}{\partial t}= KN \] where \(N\) denotes the unit inward normal and \(K\) denotes the Gauss curvature. In this paper the authors show that under the same assumptions as in \textit{P. Daskalopoulos} and \textit{R. Hamilton}, ``The free boundary on the Gaussian curvature flow with flat sides'' [J. Reine Angew. Math. 510, 187--227 (1999; Zbl 0931.53031)], the \(C^\infty\) regularity of the strictly convex side up to the interface is preserved to the focusing time of the flat side. That is, the stricly convex part of the surface is determined by a function \(f.\) Setting \(g =\sqrt{2f}\), the authors prove that, under some assumptions, it follows that \(g\) remains smooth up to the interface up to the time \(T_c,\) when the area of the flat side shrinks to zero.