arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Jacob Bernstein.
We show that the space of asymptotically conical self-expanders of the mean curvature flow is a smooth Banach manifold. An immediate consequence is that non-degenerate self-expanders -- that is, those self-expanders that admit no non-trivial normal Jacobi fields that fix the asymptotic cone -- are generic in a certain sense.
We show compactness in the locally smooth topology for certain natural families of asymptotically conical self-expanding solutions of mean curvature flow. Specifically, we show such compactness for the set of all two-dimensional self-expanders of a fixed topological type and, in all dimensions, for the set of self-expanders of low entropy and for the set of mean convex self-expanders with strictly mean convex asymptotic cones. From this we deduce that the natural projection map from the space of parameterizations of asymptotically conical self-expanders to the space of parameterizations of the asymptotic cones is proper for these classes.
We establish the existence of an integer degree for the natural projection map from the space of parameterizations of asymptotically conical self-expanders to the space of parameterizations of the asymptotic cones when this map is proper. As an application we show that there is an open set in the space of cones in the three-dimensional Euclidean space for which each cone in the set has a strictly unstable self-expanding annuli asymptotic to it.
We use a weighted variant of the frequency functions introduced by Almgren to prove sharp asymptotic estimates for almost eigenfunctions of the drift Laplacian associated to the Gaussian weight on an asymptotically conical end. As a consequence, we obtain a purely elliptic proof of a result of L. Wang on the uniqueness of self-shrinkers of the mean curvature flow asymptotic to a given cone. Another consequence is a unique continuation property for self-expanders of the mean curvature flow that flow from a cone.
We introduce on any smooth oriented minimal surface in Euclidean $3$-space a meromorphic quadratic differential, $P$, which we call the entropy differential. This differential arises naturally in a number of different contexts. Of particular interest is the realization of its real part as a conservation law for a natural geometric functional -- which is, essentially, the entropy of the Gauss curvature. We characterize several classical surfaces -- including Enneper's surface, the catenoid and the helicoid -- in terms of $P$. As an application, we prove a novel curvature estimate for embedded minimal surfaces with small entropy differential and an associated compactness theorem.
We show that if a closed surface in $\mathbb{R}^3$ has entropy near to that of the unit two-sphere, then the surface is close to a round two-sphere in the Hausdorff distance.
In [5], Colding-Ilmanen-Minicozzi-White showed that within the class of closed smooth self-shrinkers in $\mathbb{R}^{n+1}$, the entropy is uniquely minimized at the round sphere. They conjectured that, for $2\leq n\leq 6$, the round sphere minimizes the entropy among all closed smooth hypersurfaces. Using an appropriate weak mean curvature flow, we prove their conjecture. For these dimensions, our approach also gives a new proof of the main result of [5] and extends its conclusions to compact singular self-shrinkers.
For any asymptotically conical self-shrinker with entropy less than or equal to that of a cylinder we show that the link of the asymptotic cone must separate the unit sphere into exactly two connected components, both diffeomorphic to the self-shrinker. Combining this with recent work of Brendle, we conclude that the round sphere uniquely minimizes the entropy among all non-flat two-dimensional self-shrinkers. This confirms a conjecture of Colding-Ilmanen-Minicozzi-White in dimension two.
We use a weak mean curvature flow together with a surgery procedure to show that all closed hypersurfaces in $\mathbb{R}^4$ with entropy less than or equal to that of $\mathbb{S}^2\times \mathbb{R}$, the round cylinder in $\mathbb{R}^4$, are diffeomorphic to $\mathbb{S}^3$.
We consider two natural classes of minimal laminations in three-manifolds. Both classes may be thought of as limits - in different senses - of embedded minimal disks. In both cases, we prove that, under a natural geometric assumption on the three-manifold, the leaves of these laminations are topologically either disks, annuli or Moebius bands. This answers a question posed by Hoffman and White.
Benguria and Loss have conjectured that, amongst all smooth closed curves of length $2π$ in the plane, the lowest possible eigenvalue of the operator $L=-Δ+κ^2$ was one. They observed that this value was achieved on a two-parameter family, $\mathcal{O}$, of geometrically distinct ovals containing the round circle and collapsing to a multiplicity-two line segment. We characterize the curves in $\mathcal{O}$ as absolute minima of two related geometric functionals. We also discuss a connection with projective differential geometry and use it to explain the natural symmetries of all three problems.
In this note, we combine the work of Ilmanen and of Colding-Ilmanen-Minicozzi to observe a uniqueness property for tangent flows at the first singular time of a smooth mean curvature flow of a closed surface in 3-dimensional Euclidean space. Specifically, if, at a fixed singular point, one tangent flow is a positive integer multiple of a shrinking plane, cylinder or sphere, then, modulo rotations, all tangent flows at the point are the same.
Inspired by an argument of Ros [15] -- we use the López-Ros deformation to give another proof of the fact -- due to Meeks and Wolf [13] -- that the only smooth, connected, singly-periodic minimal surfaces in $\Real^3$ with the area growth of two planes are the singly-periodic Scherk surfaces.
In this note, we complete the classification of the geometry of non-compact two-dimensional gradient Ricci solitons. As a consequence, we obtain two corollaries: First, a complete two-dimensional gradient Ricci soliton has bounded curvature. Second, we give examples of complete two-dimensional expanding Ricci solitons with negative curvature that are topologically disks and are not hyperbolic space.
In this paper we give two examples of sequences of embedded minimal planar domains in $\mathbb{R}^3$ which converge to singular laminations of $\mathbb{R}^3$. In contrast with the situation for embedded minimal disks, these examples do not arise from complete embedded minimal planar domains and highlight some of the subtleties inherent in understanding refined properties of embedded minimal planar domains.
In this note, we use a result of Osserman and Schiffer \cite{OS} to give a variational characterization of the catenoid. Namely, we show that subsets of the catenoid minimize area within a geometrically natural class of minimal annuli. To the best of our knowledge, this fact has gone unremarked upon in the literature. As an application of the techniques, we give a sharp condition on the lengths of a pair of connected, simple closed curves $σ_1$ and $σ_2$ lying in parallel planes that precludes the existence of a connected minimal surface $Σ$ with $\partial Σ=σ_1\cupσ_2$.
We show that an embedded minimal disk in R^3 with large curvature is bilipschitz with a piece of a helicoid. Additionally, a simplified proof of the uniqueness of the helicoid is provided.
In this paper, we show that a complete embedded minimal surface in $\Real^3$ with finite topology and one end is conformal to a once-punctured compact Riemann surface. Moreover, using the conformality and embeddedness, we examine the Weierstrass data and conclude that every such surface has Weierstrass data asymptotic to that of the helicoid. More precisely, if $g$ is the stereographic projection of the Gauss map, then in a neighborhood of the puncture, $g(p) = \exp(iαz(p) + F(p))$, where $α\in \Real$, $z=x_3+ix_3^*$ is a holomorphic coordinate defined in this neighborhood and $F(p)$ is holomorphic in the neighborhood and extends over the puncture with a zero there. This further implies that the end is actually Hausdorff close to a helicoid.