Curve straightening and a minimax argument for closed elastic curves (Q2266452)

The authors study the functional \(F=\oint k^ 2 ds\) (''total squared curvature'') on the space of smooth closed curves in \({\mathbb{R}}^ 3\) of fixed length. In particular they establish the Palais-Smale condition for F, so the gradient flow of F (''curve straightening'') is well-behaved. As an application all critical points of F (''closed elastic curves'') are classified by a minimax argument.