On the Palais-Smale condition in geometric knot theory

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Main Authors: Freches, Nicolas, Schumacher, Henrik, Steenebrügge, Daniel, von der Mosel, Heiko
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Freches, Nicolas
Schumacher, Henrik
Steenebrügge, Daniel
von der Mosel, Heiko
author_facet Freches, Nicolas
Schumacher, Henrik
Steenebrügge, Daniel
von der Mosel, Heiko
contents We prove that various families of energies relevant in geometric knot theory satisfy the Palais-Smale condition (PS) on submanifolds of arclength para\-metrized knots. These energies include linear combinations of the Euler-Bernoulli bending energy with a wide variety of non-local knot energies, such as O'Hara's self-repulsive potentials $E^{α,p}$, generalized tangent-point energies $\TP^{(p,q)}$, and generalized integral Menger curvature functionals $\intM^{(p,q)}$. Even the tangent-point energies $\TP^{(p,2)}$ for $p\in (4,5)$ alone are shown to fulfill the (PS)-condition. For all energies mentioned we can therefore prove existence of minimizing knots in any prescribed ambient isotopy class, and we provide long-time existence of their Hilbert-gradient flows, and subconvergence to critical knots as time goes to infinity. In addition, we prove $C^\infty$-smoothness of all arclength constrained critical knots, which shows in particular that these critical knots are also critical for the energies on the larger open set of regular knots under a fixed-length constraint.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2505_02719
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle On the Palais-Smale condition in geometric knot theory
Freches, Nicolas
Schumacher, Henrik
Steenebrügge, Daniel
von der Mosel, Heiko
Classical Analysis and ODEs
Differential Geometry
Functional Analysis
Geometric Topology
53C44, 35S10, 49Q10, 49N60, 57M25
We prove that various families of energies relevant in geometric knot theory satisfy the Palais-Smale condition (PS) on submanifolds of arclength para\-metrized knots. These energies include linear combinations of the Euler-Bernoulli bending energy with a wide variety of non-local knot energies, such as O'Hara's self-repulsive potentials $E^{α,p}$, generalized tangent-point energies $\TP^{(p,q)}$, and generalized integral Menger curvature functionals $\intM^{(p,q)}$. Even the tangent-point energies $\TP^{(p,2)}$ for $p\in (4,5)$ alone are shown to fulfill the (PS)-condition. For all energies mentioned we can therefore prove existence of minimizing knots in any prescribed ambient isotopy class, and we provide long-time existence of their Hilbert-gradient flows, and subconvergence to critical knots as time goes to infinity. In addition, we prove $C^\infty$-smoothness of all arclength constrained critical knots, which shows in particular that these critical knots are also critical for the energies on the larger open set of regular knots under a fixed-length constraint.
title On the Palais-Smale condition in geometric knot theory
topic Classical Analysis and ODEs
Differential Geometry
Functional Analysis
Geometric Topology
53C44, 35S10, 49Q10, 49N60, 57M25
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.02719