Variational Evolution Problems and Nonlocal Geometric Motion

We consider two variational evolution problems related to Monge-Kantorovich mass transfer. These problems provide models for collapsing sandpiles and for compression molding. We prove the following connection between these problems and nonlocal geometric curvature motion: The distance functions to surfaces moving according to certain nonlocal geometric laws are solutions of the variational evolution problems. Thus we do the first step of the proof of heuristics developed in earlier works. The main techniques we use are differential‐equation methods in the Monge‐Kantorovich theory. (Accepted May 19, 1998)