A nonuniform extension of the Möbius energy (Q2161360)

In [\textit{M. H. Freedman} et al., Ann. Math. (2) 139, No. 1, 1--50 (1994; Zbl 0817.57011)] the Möbius energy was formalized as: Let \(\gamma:[0,l]\rightarrow\mathbb{R}^n\) be a \(C^1\) curve then \[ E(\gamma)= \int_0^l \int_0^l \big(\frac{1}{|\gamma(s)-\gamma(t)|^ 2} -\frac{1}{D_\gamma(s,t)^ 2}\big) |\gamma^\prime(s)||\gamma^\prime(t)| ds dt, \] where \(D_\gamma(s,t)\) is the distance between \(\gamma(s)\) and \(\gamma(t)\) along \(\gamma\). In this paper, the authors discuss a nonuniform extension of the Möbius energy for curves of nonuniform thickness. Let \(\mu : [0, l] \rightarrow\mathbb{R}^+\) be a continuous function with \(\mu(0) = \mu(l)\), then the pair \((\gamma, \mu)\) is a weighted curve and \(\mu\) is a weight function. The nonuniform energy \(E(\gamma,\mu)\) of \(\gamma\) with respect to \(\mu\) is given via \[ E(\gamma,\mu) =\int_0^l \int_0^l \big(\frac{1}{|\gamma(s)-\gamma(t)|^ 2} -\frac{1}{D_\gamma(s,t)^ 2}\big) \mu(s)\mu(t) ds dt. \] The nonuniform energy is not Möbius invariant. The main theorem states: Fix a weight function \(\mu : [0, l]\rightarrow\mathbb{R}^+\). If \(\gamma_0 : [0, l] \rightarrow\mathbb{R}^n\) absolutely minimizes \(E(\gamma,\mu)\) for \(C^1\) simple closed curves, then \(\gamma_0\) is planar and convex. As this energy is not Möbius invariant, this requires a novel approach. The authors describe two variations of the nonuniform energy: the equitotal variation, which allows the free reallocation of weight along a curve, and the translatory variation, which only allows the translation of a weight profile along a curve. The authors prove that equitotal variation has no absolute minimizer when the curve has a point of zero curvature and also provide conditions that ensure invariance of the energy of a weighted curve under translatory variation -- a standard parametrization of torus knots with sinusoidal weight distributions are such examples.