The gradient flow of the Möbius energy near local minimizers (Q663336)

The search for canonical representatives of a given knot class has led to the consideration of a variety of so-called knot energies. Well-known energies such as the elastic energy may not have a minimum within a given knot class, or their gradient flow may leave the given knot class. Here the author studies the gradient flow of the Möbius energy proposed by \textit{J.~O'Hara} [Topology 30, No. 2, 241--247 (1991; Zbl 0733.57005)]. For curves \(\gamma:\mathbb{R}/\mathbb{Z} \rightarrow \mathbb{R}^n\) the Möbius energy is \[ E(\gamma) = \iint_{(\mathbb{R}/\mathbb{Z})^2} \left( \frac{1}{|\gamma(u)-\gamma(v)|^2} - \frac{1}{d_\gamma(u,v)^2} \right) |\gamma'(u)||\gamma'(v)|\, du\, dv \] where \(d_\gamma(u,v)\) denotes the distance between the points \(\gamma(u)\) and \(\gamma(v)\) along the curve \(\gamma\). This energy is invariant under Möbius transformations. \textit{M. H.~Freedman, Z.-X.~He} and \textit{Z.~Wang} [Ann. Math. (2) 139, No. 1, 1--50 (1994; Zbl 0817.57011)] computed an expression for the derivative of the Möbius energy of the form \[ E'(\gamma)h = \int_{\mathbb{R}/\mathbb{Z}} \langle H\gamma(u),h(u)\rangle |\gamma'(u)|\,du \] for all embedded regular closed curves \(\gamma\in H^3(\mathbb{R}/\mathbb{Z},\mathbb{R}^n)\) and \(h\in H^3(\mathbb{R}/\mathbb{Z},\mathbb{R}^n)\), where \(H\) is given explicitly. They also showed that for each prime knot class there is a simple closed curve minimizing the Möbius energy in that class. Later \textit{Z.-X.~He} [Commun. Pure Appl. Math. 53, No. 4, 399--431 (2000; Zbl 1042.53043)] computed the linearization of \(H\) around curves parametrized by arclength and used the Nash-Moser implicit function theorem to prove short time existence for the heat flow \(\partial_t\gamma = -H\gamma \;(*)\) for smooth initial data. Here the author extends the above results in several respects. First, he shows that \(H\) has a quasilinear structure, and using this, he proves short time existence with smoothing effects, for \(C^{2+\alpha}\) initial data. The second and main result is the long time existence of solutions of \((*)\) for initial data sufficiently close to a local minimizer of the Möbius energy. More precisely, if an embedded regular curve \(\gamma_M\in C^\infty(\mathbb{R}/\mathbb{Z},\mathbb{R}^n)\) is a local minimizer of the Möbius energy in \(C^k(\mathbb{R}/\mathbb{Z},\mathbb{R}^n)\) for some \(k\in \mathbb{N}_0\), then for every \(\beta>0\) there is a neighbourhood \(V\) of \(\gamma_N\) in \(C^{2+\beta}(\mathbb{R}/\mathbb{Z},\mathbb{R}^n)\) such that for any \(\gamma_0\in V\) the heat flow \((*)\) with initial data \(\gamma_0\) exists for all times and converges after a suitable reparametrization to a stationary point \(\gamma_\infty\) satisfying \(E(\gamma_\infty)=E(\gamma_N)\). This is proved with the help of a Łojasiewicz-Simon type inequality for the Möbius energy.