Existence of a lens-shaped cluster of surfaces self-shrinking by mean curvature (Q2332947)

This paper studies the geometric evolution of a cluster of (2-dimensional) surfaces in \(\mathbb{R}^3\), moving with normal velocity given by the mean curvature, meeting in triple along smooth common curves forming equal angles of \(120^{\circ}\) and meeting at common isolated points in groups of six with suitable angles. This flow is called ``mean curvature flow with triple edges''. Some previous works indicate that a suitable sequence of rescalings of the subsets of \(\mathbb{R}^n\) which are evolving by mean curvature, approaching a singular time of the flow, ``converges'' to a so called ``blow-up limit'' set which, letting it flow again by mean curvature, simply moves by homothety, and shrinks down self-similarly toward the origin of the Euclidean space. The authors consider his procedure and the classification of these special sets, called shrinkers, as a key point in understanding the asymptotic behavior of the flow at a singular time. The main result is: ``There exists a rotationally symmetric ``lens-shaped'' shrinker, which is also symmetric with respect to the horizontal plane containing its unbounded surface, such that the three surfaces meet at a common circle in the plane forming three angles of \(120^{\circ}\).''