Motion of level sets by mean curvature IV

We continue our investigation of the “level-set” technique for describing the generalized evolution of hypersurfaces moving according to their mean curvature. The principal assertion of this paper is a kind of reconciliation with the geometric measure theoretic approach pioneered by K. Brakke: we prove that almost every level set of the solution to the mean curvature evolution PDE is in fact aunit-density varifold moving according to its mean curvature. In particular, a.e. level set is endowed with a kind of “geometric structure.” The proof utilizes compensated compactness methods to pass to limits in various geometric expressions.     

On the Ma–Trudinger–Wang curvature on surfaces

We investigate the properties of the Ma–Trudinger–Wang nonlocal curvature tensor in the case of surfaces. In particular, we prove that a strict form of the Ma–Trudinger– Wang condition is stable under C ⁴ perturbation if the nonfocal domains are uniformly convex; and we present new examples of positively curved surfaces which do not satisfy the Ma–Trudinger–Wang condition. As a corollary of our results, optimal transport maps on a “sufficiently flat” ellipsoid are in general nonsmooth.     

Numerical solution for the anisotropic Willmore flow of graphs

The Willmore flow is well known problem from the differential geometry. It minimizes the Willmore functional defined as integral of the mean-curvature square over given manifold. For the graph formulation, we derive modification of the Willmore flow with anisotropic mean curvature. We define the weak solution and we prove an energy equality. We approximate the solution numerically by the complementary finite volume method. To show the stability, we re-formulate the resulting scheme in terms of the finite difference method. By using simple framework of the finite difference method (FDM) we show discrete version of the energy equality. The time discretization is done by the method of lines and the resulting system of ODEs is solved by the Runge–Kutta–Merson solver with adaptive integration step. We also show experimental order of convergence as well as results of the numerical experiments, both for several different anisotropies.     

On critical points of the relative fractional perimeter

We study the localization of sets with constant nonlocal mean curvature and prescribed small volume in a bounded open set, proving that they are sufficiently close to critical points of a suitable nonlocal potential. We then consider the fractional perimeter in half-spaces. We prove existence of minimizers under fixed volume constraint, and we show some properties such as smoothness and rotational symmetry.     

On permutation labeling

We determine all permutation graphs of order ?9. We prove that every bipartite graph of order ?50 is a permutation graph. We convert the conjecture stating that “every tree is a permutation graph” to be “every bipartite graph is a permutation graph”.     

Error analysis of finite element approximations of the inverse mean curvature flow arising from the general relativity

This paper proposes and analyzes a finite element method for a nonlinear singular elliptic equation arising from the black hole theory in the general relativity. The nonlinear equation, which was derived and analyzed by Huisken and Ilmanen in (J Diff Geom 59:353–437), represents a level set formulation for the inverse mean curvature flow describing the evolution of a hypersurface whose normal velocity equals the reciprocal of its mean curvature. We first propose a finite element method for a regularized flow which involves a small parameter ɛ; a rigorous analysis is presented to study well-posedness and convergence of the scheme under certain mesh-constraints, and optimal rates of convergence are verified. We then prove uniform convergence of the finite element solution to the unique weak solution of the nonlinear singular elliptic equation as the mesh size h and the regularization parameter ɛ both tend to zero. Computational results are provided to show the efficiency of the proposed finite element method and to numerically validate the “jumping out” phenomenon of the weak solution of the inverse mean curvature flow. Numerical studies are presented to evidence the existence of a polynomial scaling law between the mesh size h and the regularization parameter ɛ for optimal convergence of the proposed scheme. Finally, a numerical convergence study for another approach recently proposed by R. Moser (The inverse mean curvature flow and p-harmonic functions. preprint U Bath, 2005) for approximating the inverse mean curvature flow via p-harmonic functions is also included.     

Variational theory and domain decomposition for nonlocal problems

In this article we present the first results on domain decomposition methods for nonlocal operators. We present a nonlocal variational formulation for these operators and establish the well-posedness of associated boundary value problems, proving a nonlocal Poincaré inequality. To determine the conditioning of the discretized operator, we prove a spectral equivalence which leads to a mesh size independent upper bound for the condition number of the stiffness matrix. We then introduce a nonlocal two-domain variational formulation utilizing nonlocal transmission conditions, and prove equivalence with the single-domain formulation. A nonlocal Schur complement is introduced. We establish condition number bounds for the nonlocal stiffness and Schur complement matrices. Supporting numerical experiments demonstrating the conditioning of the nonlocal one- and two-domain problems are presented.     

Collapsing and the convex hull property in a soap film capillarity model

Soap films hanging from a wire frame are studied in the framework of capillarity theory. Minimizers in the corresponding variational problem are known to consist of positive volume regions with boundaries of constant mean curvature/pressure, possibly connected by “collapsed” minimal surfaces. We prove here that collapsing only occurs if the mean curvature/pressure of the bulky regions is negative, and that, when this last property holds, the whole soap film lies in the convex hull of its boundary wire frame.     

Compactness and dichotomy in nonlocal shape optimization

We prove a general result about the behaviour of minimizing sequences for nonlocal shape functionals satisfying suitable structural assumptions. Typical examples include functions of the eigenvalues of the fractional Laplacian under homogeneous Dirichlet boundary conditions. Exploiting a nonlocal version of Lions' concentration-compactness principle, we prove that either an optimal shape exists or there exists a minimizing sequence consisting of two “pieces” whose mutual distance tends to infinity. Our work is inspired by similar results obtained by Bucur in the local case.     

Steady State and Long Time Convergence of Spirals Moving by Forced Mean Curvature Motion

In this paper, we prove the existence and uniqueness of a “steady” spiral moving with forced mean curvature motion. This spiral has a stationary shape and rotates with constant angular velocity. Under appropriate conditions on the initial data, we also show the long time convergence (up to some subsequence in time) of the solution of the Cauchy problem to the steady state. This result is based on a new Liouville result which is of independent interest.     

Kinetic-fluid derivation and mathematical analysis of a nonlocal cross-diffusion–fluid system

In this article we propose a nonlocal cross-diffusion–fluid system describing the dynamics of multiple interacting populations living in a Newtonian fluid. First, we derive our nonlocal cross-diffusion–fluid system from a nonlocal kinetic-fluid model by the micro-macro decomposition method. Second, we prove the existence of weak solutions for the proposed system by applying the nonlinear Galerkin method with a priori estimates and compactness arguments. On the basis of micro-macro decomposition, we propose and develop an asymptotic-preserving numerical scheme. Finally, we discuss the computational results for the proposed system.     

A rigidity theorem for a space-like graph¶of higher codimension

We prove a rigidity theorem for a space-like graph with parallel mean curvature of arbitrary dimension and codimension in pseudo-Euclidean space via properties of its harmonic Gauss map. We also give an estimate of the squared norm of the second fundamental form in terms of the mean curvature and the image diameter under the Gauss map for space-like submanifolds with parallel mean curvature in pseudo-Euclidean space. The estimate also implies the former theorem. Received: 10 December 1999     

A Three-dimensional Continuum Theory of Dislocation Plasticity - Modelling and Application to a Composite

The increasing demand for materials with well defined microstructure, which is accompanied by the advancing miniaturization of devices calls for physically motivated, dislocation-based continuum theories of plasticity. Only recently rigorous techniques have been developed for performing meaningful averages over systems of moving, curved dislocations, yielding evolution equations for a higher order dislocation density tensor. Our continuum dislocation theory allows for generalizing the planar system towards a three-dimensional system, where dislocations may have arbitrary orientation and curvature. With the inclusion of curvature, the theory naturally takes into account a deformation-induced increase in the overall dislocation density without having to invoke ad-hoc assumptions about dislocation sources. A numerical implementation and some benchmark tests of this continuum theory for dislocation dynamics has already been discussed in the literature. In this paper, we apply this continuum theory to composite materials, where we analyze a plastically deforming matrix with an elastic inclusion. (© 2011 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Contractors and connectors of graph algebras

We study generalizations of the “contraction‐deletion” relation of the Tutte polynomial, and other similar simple operations, to other graph parameters. The question can be set in the framework of graph algebras introduced by Freedman at al [Reflection positivity, rank connectivity, and homomorphisms of graphs, J. Amer. Math. Soc. 20 (2007), 37–51.] Graph algebras are defined by a graph parameter, and they were introduced in order to study and characterize homomorphism functions. We prove that for homomorphism functions, these graph algebras have special elements called “contractors” and “connectors”. This gives a new characterization of homomorphism functions. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 60: 11–30, 2009     

Bad news for chordal partitions

Reed and Seymour [1998] asked whether every graph has a partition into induced connected nonempty bipartite subgraphs such that the quotient graph is chordal. If true, this would have significant ramifications for Hadwiger's Conjecture. We prove that the answer is “no.” In fact, we show that the answer is still “no” for several relaxations of the question.     

Coupled surface and grain boundary motion: a travelling wave solution

Existence and uniqueness are proven for a travelling wave solution for a problem in which motion by mean curvature is coupled with surface diffusion. This problem pertains to a bicrystal in a “quarter-loop” geometry in which one grain grows at the expense of the other, and the internal grain boundary between the two crystals contacts the exterior surface at a “groove root” or “tri-junction” where various balance laws hold. Far in front and behind the groove root the overall height of the bicrystal is assumed to be unperturbed. Whereas in a previous paper (Acta Mater. 51 (2003) 1981) a partially linearized formulation was considered for which explicit solutions could be found, here we treat the fully nonlinear problem. Employing an angle formulation and a scaled arc-length parameterization, we reduce the problem to the solution of a third order ODE with a jump condition at the origin. Existence is proven if m, the ratio of the exterior surface energy to the surface energy of the grain boundary, is less than about $\approx 0.92$. Uniqueness of these solutions is demonstrated within the class of single-valued solutions. A numerical comparison is made with the solution of the partially linearized formulation found earlier for the sake of illustration.     

An approximation scheme for the anisotropic and nonlocal mean curvature flow

In 2004 Chambolle proposed an algorithm for mean curvature flow based on a variational problem. Since then, the convergence, extensions and applications of his algorithm have been studied by many people. In this paper we give a proof of the convergence of an anisotropic version of Chambolle’s algorithm by use of the signed distance function. An application of our scheme to an approximation of the nonlocal curvature flow such as crystalline one is also discussed.     

A Notion of Nonlocal Curvature

We consider a nonlocal (or fractional) curvature and we investigate similarities and differences with respect to the classical local case. In particular, we show that the nonlocal mean curvature can be seen as an average of suitable nonlocal directional curvatures and there is a natural asymptotic convergence to the classical case. Nevertheless, different from the classical cases, minimal and maximal nonlocal directional curvatures are not in general attained at perpendicular directions and, in fact, one can arbitrarily prescribe the set of extremal directions for nonlocal directional curvatures. Also the classical directional curvatures naturally enjoy some linear properties that are lost in the nonlocal framework. In this sense, nonlocal directional curvatures are somewhat intrinsically nonlinear.     

On the generalized mean curvature

We study some properties of graphs whose mean curvature (in distributional sense) is a vector Radon measure. In particular, we prove that the distributional mean curvature of the graph of a Lipschitz continuous function u is a measure if and only if the distributional divergence of T u is a measure. This equivalence fails to be true if Lipschitz continuity is relaxed, as it is shown in a couple of examples. Finally, we prove a theorem of approximation in W ^(1,1) and in the sense of mean curvature of C ² graphs by polyhedral graphs. A number of examples illustrating different situations which can occur complete the work.     

A Note on Doubly Connected Surfaces of Constant Mean Curvature with Prescribed Boundary

In this paper we prove the existence of a constant mean curvature surface spanning two given convex curves in parallel planes of ℝ³ under hypotheses relating the distance between the planes, the curvature of the curves and the mean curvature. It is also proved that the surface is a radial graph over a unit sphere.This author was partially Supported by Fapergs. Mathematics Subject Classifications (2000): 53A10, 53C42, 35J60