The space of asymptotically conical self-expanders of mean curvature flow (Q2035574)

This paper studies the structure of the space of asymptotically conical 1-codimensional self-expanders of the mean curvature flow. It was proved that this space is a smooth Banach manifold. Self-expanders arise naturally when one considers solutions of graphical mean curvature flow. The geometry of a self-expander is strongly determined by its asymptotic structure at infinity. The paper provides expository description of asymptotic conical hypersurfaces/embeddings and the trace at infinity. It was shown that the mapping that assigns to a parameterization of an asymptotically conical self-expander the trace at infinity, is Fredholm with index zero. This implies that self-expanders asymptotic to a generic cone do not admit non-trivial normal Jacobi fields that fix the asymptotic cone. Also, a self-expander \( \Sigma \) is regarded as a critical point of the functional \[ E(\Sigma) = \int_{\Sigma} e^{\dfrac{|x|^2}{4}} d H^n,\] and the first and second variation formula for \( E \) are computed. Moreover, the authors associate to the second variation of \( E \) a type of Jacobi operator and prove that it is a Fredholm operator of index zero.