On the stability of \(m\)-fold circles and the dynamics of generalized curve shortening flows (Q1947263)

Given \(p\in\mathbb{N}^*\), a family \(x:\mathbb{S}^1\times[0,T)\to\mathbb{R}^3\) of smooth immersions of the unit circle \(\mathbb{S}^1\subset\mathbb{R}^2\) in \(\mathbb{R}^3\) satisfies the \(p\)-curve shortening flow if \[ {\partial x\over\partial t} = -{1\over p} k^p \mathbf{N}, \] where \(k\) is the curvature of the immersion and \(\mathbf{N}\) is the normal outward vector to the region bounded by \(x(\cdot,t)\). In this paper, the authors study the stability of \(m\)-fold circles as solutions of the \(p\)-curve shortening flow. More precisely, they give asymptotic stability results, and prove sharp stabilization estimates for the curvature of solutions to the \(p\)-curve shortening flow whose initial data are appropriate small perturbations of an \(m\)-fold circle. The main idea in the proofs consists in writing down the evolution equation of the curvature of a curve satisfying certain symmetries and deformed under the \(p\)-curve shortening flow. This evolution equation turns out to be a quasilinear parabolic problem in \(\mathbb{S}^1\), and thus standard techniques can be used to infer existence and uniqueness of solutions.