An anisotropic shrinking flow and \(L_p\) Minkowski problem (Q6159281)

For \(\mathcal{M}_0\) a smooth, closed, uniformly convex hypersurface in \(\mathbb{R}^n\) enclosing the origin, the authors consider the following anisotropic shrinking curvature flow: \[\begin{cases} \frac{\partial X}{\partial t} = -f\left(\nu\right)\left<X,\nu\right>^\alpha K^\beta \nu,\\ X\left(\cdot,0\right) = X_0\left(\cdot\right), \end{cases}\tag{1} \] where \(\mathcal{M}_t\) is parametrized by the inverse Gauss map \(X: S^n \rightarrow \mathcal{M}_t\), \(\nu\) is the outer unit normal, \(K\) is the Gauss curvature of \(\mathcal{M}_t\), and \(f\) is a smooth positive function on \(S^n\). Some special cases of this flow include the Gauss curvature flow and the mean curvature flow. Under the flow (1), the support function \(u\) satisfies the following PDE: \[\begin{cases} \frac{\partial u}{\partial t} = -f\left(x\right)u^\alpha\left(x,t\right)\sigma^{-\beta}_n,\\ u\left(\cdot,0\right) = u_0\left(\cdot\right). \end{cases}\tag{2}\] Here \(\sigma_n\) is the \(n\)-th elementary symmetric polynomial in the \(\lambda_i\) (the \(i\)-th principal curvature of \(\mathcal{M}_t\)). Under various conditions on the initial hypersurface \(\mathcal{M}_0\) as well as \(\alpha,\beta,f\) the authors are able to prove that the flow (2) has a unique, smooth, and uniformly convex solution \(\mathcal{M}_t\). The list of conditions is the following. Implicitly these are all in dimension \(n \geq 2\) and the initial hypersurface \(\mathcal{M}_0\) is a smooth, closed, uniformly convex hypersurface in \(\mathbb{R}^n\) enclosing the origin: (a) \(\mathcal{M}_0\) is origin symmetric, \(1-\beta < \alpha < 1 + \beta\) or \(\alpha = 0,\beta=1\), and \(f\) is a positive smooth even function on \(S^n\); (b) \(\mathcal{M}_0\) is origin symmetric, \(1- \beta\left(n+2\right) < \alpha < 1-\beta\), and \(f\) is a positive smooth even function on \(S^n\); (c) \(\alpha \geq 1 + n\beta, \beta > 0\) and \(f\) is any smooth function on \(S^n\). Furthermore, the authors show that, after normalization, certain rescaled solutions \(\widetilde{\mathcal{M}}_t\) smoothly converge to a smooth solution of the soliton equation \(f u^{\alpha - 1}\sigma^{-\beta}_n = c\) for some positive constant \(c\). Furthermore, under the first or third set of conditions in the list above, the rescaled solution converges to a minimizer of a certain functional introduced in the paper. If the second set of assumptions is satisfied, then the limit of the rescaled solution is a maximizer of the functional. As an application of these results, the authors are able to give a unified approach to the \(L_p\)-Minkowski problem \(u^{1-p}\sigma_n = \phi\) for certain functions \(\phi\). They also show uniqueness of such solutions under certain conditions on \(p,n\).