Asymptotic convergence for modified scalar curvature flow (Q6053818)

The author studies the flow \[ \frac{\partial X}{\partial t}(x,t) = -r^\alpha \sigma_2^{1/2}(x,t)\nu, \qquad X(x,0)=X_0(x), \eqno(*) \] for closed, starshaped hypersurfaces patrametrized by \(X(\cdot,t):\mathbb{S}^N\rightarrow\mathbb{R}^{n+1}\), where \(\sigma_2^{1/2}\) is the normalized square root of the scalar curvature, \(\alpha\ge 2\) is a constant, \(r=|X(x,t)|\), and \(\nu\) is the unit outer normal at \(X(\cdot,t)\). The main result is the following. Let \(X_0: \mathbb{S}^n\rightarrow \mathbb{R}^{n+1}\) be an embedding of a smooth, closed, 2-convex, starshaped hypersurface in \(\mathbb{R}^{n+1}\). Then the flow \((*)\) has a unique smooth starshaped solution \(X(\cdot,t)\) with positive scalar curvature for all time \(t>0\), and \(X(\cdot,t)\) converges to the origin as \(t\rightarrow\infty\). After a proper rescaling \(X\rightarrow \phi^{-1}(t)X\), the hypersurfaces \(\widetilde X(\cdot,t)=\phi^{-1}(t)X(\cdot,t)\) converge exponentially fast to a sphere centered at the origin in the \(C^\infty\) topology. An analogous result for flows with speeds \(r^\alpha \sigma_k\), \(\alpha\ge k+1\), where \(\sigma_k\) is the \(k\)-th elementary symmetric function of the principal curvatures, has been proved by \textit{Q.-R. Li} et al. [J. Geom. Anal. 30, No. 1, 834--860 (2020; Zbl 1434.53096)] for convex hypersurfaces. The present article is partly motivated by this work. The assumption here that the initial hypersurface is 2-convex, which means that \(\sigma_1>0\) and \(\sigma_2>0\) at all points of the initial hypersurface, is a natural condition to impose for the flow \((*)\), and is much weaker than convexity. This makes the proof of the curvature bounds significantly more difficult than in the convex case. A counterexample is given to show that the asymptotic convergence stated above may fail if \(\alpha< 2\).