Dimension reduction for Willmore flows of tori: fixed conformal class and analysis of singularities

Abstract

This work studies Willmore flows of tori and their singularities via a dimension reduction approach. We introduce a Willmore flow that preserves the degenerate constraint of prescribed conformal class and, for rotationally symmetric initial data, we establish a strong relation with the length-preserving elastic flow in the hyperbolic plane. We provide a necessary condition for singularities and a criterion for the initial datum that allows to exclude them. Our results allow for initial data with arbitrarily large energy, in particular exceeding the usual Li-Yau threshold of $8\pi$. As an application, we obtain existence of a new class of conformally constrained Willmore tori. Moreover, we investigate singularities of the classical Willmore flow. For a class of tori, we identify a non-smooth object, the inverted catenoid, as the limit shape and we show that the flow can be restarted at this singular surface and converges to a round sphere.