Finite time singularities for the locally constrained Willmore flow of surfaces

In this paper we study the steepest descent $L^2$-gradient flow of the functional $\SW_{λ_1,λ_2}$, which is the the sum of the Willmore energy, $λ_1$-weighted surface area, and $λ_2$-weighted enclosed volume, for surfaces immersed in $\R^3$. This coincides with the Helfrich functional with zero `spontaneous curvature'. Our first results are a concentration-compactness alternative and interior estimates for the flow. For initial data with small energy, we prove preservation of embeddedness, and by directly estimating the Euler-Lagrange operator from below in $L^2$ we obtain that the maximal time of existence is finite. Combining this result with the analysis of a suitable blowup allows us to show that for such initial data the flow contracts to a round point in finite time.

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