Variational analysis of a mean curvature flow action functional

DOI10.1007/S00526-014-0726-9MaRDI QIDQ2017812zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Annibale Magni, Matthias Röger

Publication date 23 March 2015

Published in Calculus of Variations and Partial Differential Equations (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/1304.2012

zbMATH Keywords

action minimization problemcompactnessEuler-Lagrange equationlower semicontinuitymean curvature flowreduced Allen-Cahn action functionalsymmetries

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Weak solutions to PDEs (35D30) Boundary value problems for nonlinear higher-order PDEs (35G30) Methods involving semicontinuity and convergence; relaxation (49J45) Variational problems in a geometric measure-theoretic setting (49Q20)

Abstract: We consider the reduced Allen-Cahn action functional, which appears as the sharp interface limit of the Allen-Cahn action functional and can be understood as a formal action functional for a stochastically perturbed mean curvature flow. For suitable evolutions of generalized hypersurfaces this functional consists of the sum of the squares of the mean curvature and of the velocity vector, integrated over time and space. For given initial and final conditions we investigate the corresponding action minimization problem. We give a generalized formulation and prove compactness and lower semicontinuity properties of the action functional. Furthermore we characterize the Euler-Lagrange equation for smooth stationary points and investigate conserved quantities. Finally we present an explicit example and consider concentric spheres as initial and final data and characterize in dependence of the given time span the properties of the minimal rotationally symmetric connection.

Review text

The authors consider the reduced Allen-Cahn action functional, which arises as the sharp interface limit of the Allen-Cahn action functional and is thought of as a formal action functional for a stochastically perturbed mean curvature flow. Denote by \(\Sigma =(\Sigma_t)_{t\in (0,T)}\) a family of smooth surfaces that evolve smoothly except for finitely many ``singular times. The reduced action functional is given by \(S_0(\Sigma)=c_0\int_0^T\int_{\Sigma_t}(|\overrightarrow{v}(x,t)|^2+ |\overrightarrow{H}(x,t)|^2)d\mathcal{H}^n(x)dt+2S_{0,nuc}(\Sigma)\), where \(S_{0,nuc}(\Sigma)= 2c_0\sum_iH^n(\Sigma^i)\), (\(n+1\) is the space dimension), and \(\Sigma^i\) denotes the \(i\)-th component of \(\Sigma\) at its nucleation time, \(\overrightarrow{v}\) denotes the normal velocity vector for the evolution \((\Sigma_t)_{t\in (0,T)}, \overrightarrow{H}(t,.)\) denotes the mean curvature vector of \(\Sigma_t\) and the constant \(c_0\) depends on the choice of the double-well potential \(W\). The authors study the formal mean curvature flow action functional obtained from the above reduced action functional for evolutions of generalized hypersurfaces. They present a variational analysis of the reduced Allen-Cahn action functional. They prove a compactness and lower semicontinuity theorem, which ensures the applicability of the direct method of the calculus of variations, and consequently gives the existence of minimizers. Then the authors continue with the study of some properties of the smooth stationary points for the action functional. They derive the Euler-Lagrange equation for the action-minimization problem and study some associated conserved quantities which reveal some analogies with Lagrangian mechanics. They consider a specific example by studying the problem of finding the action-optimal connection between two concentric circles.

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• The Allen-Cahn action functional in higher dimensions
• Some aspects of the variational nature of mean curvature flow
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Cited in

(6)

• Large deviation principle for a stochastic Allen-Cahn equation
• The variational problem for a certain space-time functional defined on planar closed curves
• Analysis of Velázquez’s solution to the mean curvature flow with a type II singularity
• Stochastic Allen-Cahn approximation of the mean curvature flow: large deviations upper bound
• Action minimization for an Allen-Cahn equation with an unequal double-well potential
• Some aspects of the variational nature of mean curvature flow

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