Remarks on the self-shrinking Clifford torus

Abstract

On the one hand, we prove that the Clifford torus in $\mathbb{C}^2$ is unstable for Lagrangian mean curvature flow under arbitrarily small Hamiltonian perturbations, even though it is Hamiltonian $F$-stable and locally area minimising under Hamiltonian variations. On the other hand, we show that the Clifford torus is rigid: it is locally unique as a self-shrinker for mean curvature flow, despite having infinitesimal deformations which do not arise from rigid motions. The proofs rely on analysing higher order phenomena: specifically, showing that the Clifford torus is not a local entropy minimiser even under Hamiltonian variations, and demonstrating that infinitesimal deformations which do not generate rigid motions are genuinely obstructed.