The second-order \(L^2\)-flow of inextensible elastic curves with hinged ends in the plane (Q2343277)

In this work, the authors consider the initial-boundary value problem for open curves on the unit sphere \(\mathbb{S}^1\) of \(\mathbb{R}^2\) described by the one-dimensional second-order parabolic PDE \(T:\bar{I}\times [0, t_0)\to \mathbb{S}^1\), where \(I=(0,L)\) and \[ \partial_tT=\nabla^2_sT-\langle \vec{\lambda},\vec{n}\rangle \vec{n}, \quad\text{for}~(s,t) \in I\times (0,t_0) \] with hinged boundary condition \(\partial_sT=0\) on \(\partial I\times (0, t_0)\) and initial condition \(T=T_0\) on \(\bar{I}\times\{t=0\}\), where \(\nabla\) is the covariant derivative on the one-dimensional sphere, \(\vec{n}\) is the counterlockwise rotation of \(T\) in \(\mathbb{R}^2\) by 90 degrees and \(\vec{\lambda}=\int_I|\partial_s T|^2ds\cdot (A_T)^{-1}\) where \(A_T= \int_I\vec{n}^t\vec{n}\, ds\) is a \(2\times 2\) matrix. The plane curves \(s\to T(s, t)\) are open in the sense it is not required that \(T(0,t)=T(L,t)\) and even if this is the case, the point \(T(0,t)=T(L,t)\) is not treated as an interior point of the curve. In the main Theorem 1, it is proved that if \(T_0\in C^1(\bar{I})\) and \(T'_0(0)=T'_0(L)=0\), then a global solution \(T:\bar{I}\times [0,\infty)\to \mathbb{S}^1\) of the flow exists with \(T, \partial_sT \in C^0(\bar{I}\times [0, \infty))\cap C^{\infty}(\bar{I}\times (0, \infty))\) and for a sequence \(T_i\to \infty\), the sequence \(T_i(\cdot)=T(\cdot, t_i)\) converges to a critical point \(T_{\infty}\) of the functional \(\mathcal{F}_L[T]:=\int_I \frac{1}{2}|\partial_s T|^2ds\) for smooth spherical curves on \(\bar{I}\). As a consequence and applying the fundamental theorem for planar curves in Corollary 1, the authors show that if \(f_0:\bar{I}\to \mathbb{R}^2\) is a planar curve of class \(C^1(\bar{I})\) with vanishing curvature at the boundary and fixed hinged ends, there exists an inextensible evolution of planar curves \(f:\bar{I}\times [0, \infty) \to \mathbb{R}^2\) with smooth \(f, \partial_sf, \partial^2_sf\) on \(\bar{I}\times (0,\infty)\) and continuous on \(\bar{I}\times [0,\infty)\), and the inextensible evolution of the curve \(f_0\) subconverges to an inextensible elastic, a critical point of the functional \(\mathcal{E}[f]=\int_I\frac{1}{2}|\vec{k}|^2ds\), where \(\vec{\kappa}\) is curvature vector. It is inextensible in the sense that the perturbation class \(f_t\) of \(f_0\) satisfy \(|\partial_s f_{\epsilon}(s)|=1\) for all \(|\epsilon|<1\) and for all \(s\in I\). The proof consists on showing first the short-time existence of solutions and then that all partial derivatives \(\|\partial_s^m\vec{\kappa}\|_{L^2}\) are uniformly bounded under the flow, that works in the case of hinged end boundary conditions. This result extends the result given by \textit{Y. Wen} [Duke Math. J. 70, No. 3, 683--698 (1993; Zbl 0815.58020)], where \(I\) is topologically a circle.