Self-expanders of the mean curvature flow (Q2042255)

The paper under review concerns the theory of mean curvature flow and deals with particular solutions called self-expanders. A smooth submanifold \(M^m\hookrightarrow\mathbb R^n\) is a self-expander of the mean curvature flow, if its position vector \(F\) satisfies the equation \[ H = \lambda F^\perp , \] where \(\lambda\) is a positive constant, \(H\) is the mean curvature vector and \(\perp\) denotes the orthogonal projection onto the normal bundle of the submanifold. It is claimed that the geometry of any self-expander is strongly determined by its asymptotic structure at infinity. In the case of \(n=m+1\) the author considers the pinching quantity \(\frac{|A|^2}{|H|^2}\), where \(A\) denotes the second fundamental form of \(M^m\), and demonstrates that this quantity is controlled by the geometry of \(M^m\) at infinity. Consequently this implies a series of uniqueness results for self-expanders with a certain asymptotic behavior. Theorem 1. Let \(M^m \subset \mathbb R^{m+1}\) be a complete connected self-expander that is different from a linear subspace. Then the subset \(\{H \not= 0\}\) in \(M^m\) is non-empty and the following statements are equivalent: \begin{itemize} \item[(a)] \(M^m\) is a self-expanding hyperplane, i.e., \(M^m = \Gamma\times \mathbb R^{m-1}\), where \(\Gamma\subset \mathbb R^2\) is a non-trivial self-expanding planar curve. \item[(b)] The function \(\frac{|A|^2}{|H|^2}\) attains a local maximum on the open set \(\{ H \not= 0\}\). \end{itemize} If one of these equivalent conditions is satisfied, then the set \(\{ H \not= 0\}\) is empty and the function \(\frac{|A|^2}{|H|^2}\) is constant to 1. Corollary. For any properly immersed self-expanding hypersurface \(M^m \subset \mathbb R^{m+1}\), which is mean convex so that \(|H|>0\), one has \[ \frac{|A|^2}{|H|^2} \leq \lim_{r\to\infty} \sup_{M\setminus B(0,r)} \frac{|A|^2}{|H|^2}, \] where \(B(0,r)\) denotes the closed Euclidean ball of radius \(r\) centered at the origin, and equality occurs at some point \(p\in M^m\) if and only if \(M^m\) is a self-expanding hyperplane, \(M^m = \Gamma\times \mathbb R^{m-1}\), in which case \(\frac{|A|^2}{|H|^2}\) is constant to 1. Corollary. Any properly immersed mean convex self-expanding hypersurface \(M^m \subset \mathbb R^{m+1}\) that is smoothly asymptotic to a cone with nonnegative scalar curvature must attain strictly positive scalar curvature. Corollary. Any properly immersed mean convex self-expanding surface \(M^2 \subset \mathbb R^3\) that is smoothly asymptotic to a self-expanding hyperplane is a self-expanding hyperplane. Moreover, Theorem 1 is extended to the case of arbitrary codimension as follows. Theorem 2. Let \(M^m \subset \mathbb R^{n}\) be a complete connected self-expander with \(H \not= 0\), bounded second fundamental form \(A\) and parallel principal normal \(\xi = \frac{H}{|H|}\). Then the following statements are equivalent: \begin{itemize} \item[(a)] \(M^m\) is a self-expanding hyperplane \(\Gamma\times \mathbb R^{m-1}\). \item[(b)] The function \(\frac{|A^H|^2}{|H|^4}\), where \(A^H\) is the second fundamental form with respect to \(H\), attains a local maximum. \end{itemize} If one of these equivalent conditions is satisfied, then \(\frac{|A^H|^2}{|H|^4}\) is constant to 1.