Topological change in mean convex mean curvature flow (Q1943672)

The author considers a one-parameter family of compact regions \(K(t)\) in a \((n+1)\)-dimensional Riemannian manifold \(N\), with \(K(0)\) mean convex and with boundary \(\partial K(t)\) evolved by mean curvature flow. \(N\) is assumed to be the Euclidean space if \(n\geq 7\), since only in this case it is proved that all singularities have convex type. The main purpose of this paper is to obtain information on the singularities of the flow under a change of the topology of the complement space \(K(t)^c\). The main result is the following. Theorem 1.1: If the evolved hypersurfaces \(\partial K(t)\) have no boundary, and there is a map of the \(m\)-sphere into \(K(a)^c\) that is homotopically trivial in \(K(b)^c\) but not in \(K(a)^c\) (\(0\leq a<b\)), then for some \(a\leq t< b\) there is a singularity of the flow at which the Gaussian density is \(\geq d_m\), (\(d_m\) is the Gaussian density of a shrinking \(m\)-sphere in \(\mathbb{R}^{m+1}\)), and at which the tangent flow is a shrinking \(\mathbb{S}^k\times \mathbb{R}^{n-k}\), for some \(1\leq k\leq m\). This can be applied to a given mean convex compact set \(K=K(a)\) in a Euclidean space whose \(m\)-th homotopy group of \(K^c\) has a non trivial element, by taking \(b\) sufficiently large such that \(K(b)\) is empty. The Gaussian density inequality in the theorem is necessary and sharp, and examples are given. However the change in topology does not determine the singularity type. Generalized results can be obtained by considering weaker topological conditions or the case ambient and \(\partial K(t)\) with boundary, among other situations. Theorem 4.4 is a generalized version of Theorem 1.1. For each \(t\), a quantity \(Q(K(t))\) is defined, that is given by the largest integer \(m\) such that the singular set of \(K(t)\) has Hausdorff dimension \(\leq n-m\), and considering any suitable sequence of homothetic translations of \(K(t)\), with a subsequence converging to a convex set \(K'(t)\) with smooth boundary \(\partial K'(t)\), then \(m\) is such that \(\partial K'(t)\) must have trivial \(k\)-th homotopy for every \(k<m\). In this theorem, it is proved that, under the weaker topological conditions that \(K(t)\subset K(T)\) for \(T\leq t\), and \(\partial K(t)\) form a partition of \(K(a)\backslash \mathrm{~interior}(K(b))\), then for any \(k\leq m\), every continuous map of pairs of sets \(F:(\mathbb B^k, \partial \mathbb B^k)\to (K(b)^c, K(a)^c)\) is homotopic to such a map \(G\) satisfying \(G(B^k)\subset K(a)^c\). The construction of \(G\) is by induction on \(i\), on the \(i\)-skeleton of a suitable triangulation on open sets of the \(k\)-ball. In Section 5 the case of ambient space (and so possibly \(\partial K(t)\)) with boundary is considered. Section 6 replaces topological conditions on \(K(t)^c\) by the ones of the moving regions \(K(t)\), obtained by using duality theorems in topology. Section 7 address the persistence of neck-pinches. In Theorem 7.1 it is proved that the set \(\mathcal{F}_m\) of all compact, mean convex regions \(K\) of \(\mathbb{R}^{n+1}\) with smooth boundary and such that the mean curvature flow with \(K(0)=K\) has a shrinking \(\mathbb{S}^m\times \mathbb{R}^{n-m}\) singularity is a set of nonempty interior in \(\mathcal{F}\), the set of all compact mean convex regions with smooth boundary, within the context of a suitable topology.