The singular set of mean curvature flow with generic singularities

By T. Colding, W. Minicozzi. 2014

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A mean curvature flow starting from a closed embedded hypersurface in $$\mathbf{R}^{n+1}$$Rn+1 must develop singularities. We show that if the flow has only generic singularities, then the space-time singular set is contained in finitely many compact embedded $$(n-1)$$(n-1)-dimensional Lipschitz submanifolds plus a set of dimension at most $$n-2$$n-2. If the initial hypersurface is mean convex, then all singularities are generic and the results apply. In $$\mathbf{R}^3$$R3 and $$\mathbf{R}^4$$R4, we show that for almost all times the evolving hypersurface is completely smooth and any connected component of the singular set is entirely contained in a time-slice. For 2 or 3-convex hypersurfaces in all dimensions, the same arguments lead to the same conclusion: the flow is completely smooth at almost all times and connected components of the singular set are contained in time-slices. A key technical point is a strong parabolic Reifenberg property that we show in all dimensions and for all flows with only generic singularities. We also show that the entire flow clears out very rapidly after a generic singularity. These results are essentially optimal.

Subfields: Applied Mathematics, Geometry and Topology, Mathematical Physics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/c3cbe6e6301a1031794b0dcbcebaa50ff331221a