On a Lyapunov functional relating shortening curves and viscous conservation laws (Q698865)

The authors introduce the definition of a planar curve \(\gamma\) moving in the direction of curvature for a curve with fixed end-points which evolves in time so that for any \(t_1 < t_2\), there exists a sequence \(\gamma_n\) such that \(\gamma_n \to \gamma(t_2)\), where each \(\gamma_n\) is obtained from \(\gamma (t_1)\) by a finite sequence of replacing a portion of the curve with a segment. Here all curves are considered absolutely continuous, parameterized on \([0,1]\), and the metric is \(d(\gamma_1, \gamma_2)= \inf | | \gamma_1 - \gamma_2 \circ h | | _{C^0}\), where the infimum is taken over all homeomorphisms \(h: [0,1] \to [0,1]\). The main theorem estimates the area swept by a curve moving in the direction of curvature on \([t_1, t_2]\) as being less than \(Q(\gamma(t_1))-Q(\gamma(t_2))\), where \(Q(\gamma)=\frac{1}{2} \int_0^1 \int_x^1 | \, \gamma_x (x) \wedge \gamma_x (y) | \, dy\, dx\). The main result is applied in two directions, first to get estimates of solutions to parabolic equations, then to scalar conservation laws. In both cases, the basic idea is to associate to a solution \(u(t)\) of the parabolic equation, respectively the scalar conservation law, a parametric curve \(\gamma (t)\) which moves in the direction of curvature.