Volume preserving mean curvature flow of revolution hypersurfaces between two equidistants (Q662833)

A family of immersions \(X_t:M\rightarrow \widetilde{M}\), \(t\in [0,T)\), of an \(n\)-dimensional compact manifold \(M\) (possibly with boundary) into an \((n+1)\)-dimensional Riemannian manifold \((\widetilde{M},\tilde g)\) is called a volume preserving mean curvature flow (VPMCF) if it is a solution of \[ \frac{\partial X_t}{\partial t} = \left( \overline{H}_t-H_t\right) N_t \] where \(H_t\) and \(\overline{H}_t\) are the mean curvature and average mean curvature \(\frac{1}{|M_t|}\int_{M}H_t \,d\mu_t\) respectively of the immersion \(X_t\), \(d\mu_t\) is the volume element of \(M_t=(M,X_t^*\tilde g)\), \(|M_t|\) is the \(n\)-volume, and \(N_t\) is the outward pointing unit normal vector field if \(X_t(M)\) encloses a domain. The VPMCF has been studied for closed convex hypersurfaces in Euclidean space by \textit{G.~Huisken} [J. Reine Angew. Math. 382, 35--48 (1987; Zbl 0621.53007)] and by the authors [Indiana Univ. Math. J. 56, No. 5, 2061--2086 (2007; Zbl 1130.53045)] in hyperbolic space. Another natural setting for the VPMCF is to take the initial hypersurface \(X_0(M)\) to be a hypersurface of revolution generated by the graph of a function over the axis of revolution \({\mathcal A}\). This problem was studied by \textit{M.~Athanassenas} [Comment. Math. Helv. 72, No. 1, 52--66 (1997; Zbl 0873.35033); Calc. Var. Partial Differ. Equ. 17, No. 1, 1--16 (2003; Zbl 1045.53045)] in Euclidean space and later by the authors [Math. Zeitschrift 261 (2009), 489-510] for a larger class of ambient spaces (including Euclidean and hyperbolic spaces) for which the notion of hypersurface of revolution is meaningful. In these works the evolving hypersurfaces are required to intersect orthogonally two totally geodesic hypersurfaces \(\pi_{tg}\) orthogonal to the axis of revolution \({\mathcal A}\). Assuming that some of the sectional curvatures of \(\widetilde{M}\) are negative if \(\widetilde{M}\) is not Euclidean, the authors showed that (i) the flow exists and remains a graph over \({\mathcal A}\) as long as the evolving hypersurfaces do not touch \({\mathcal A}\), and (ii) under a condition on the enclosed volume and the area of the initial hypersurface, the flow exists for all \(t\in[0,\infty)\) and there exists a sequence \(X_{t_n}(M)\) converging to a hypersurface of revolution with constant mean curvature. The main result here is a generalization of these statements to the situation where \(\pi_{tg}\) are replaced by equidistant hypersurfaces (for example, in Euclidean space they allow spheres rather than just parallel hyperplanes). In addition, ambient spaces with positive curvature and the possibility that \(\overline{H}<0\) are allowed. The analysis of the boundary condition is now more difficult because symmetry techniques can no longer be applied.