Calibration energy and mean curvature flow

Abstract

We introduce the calibration energy for oriented immersions into Euclidean space, quantifying the deviation from calibrated geometry. A key property is that this energy may remain finite for infinite-volume immersions, while a null-Lagrangian structure ensures that it has the same first variation as the volume functional. We establish an exact dissipation identity for the calibration energy along proper oriented mean curvature flows in arbitrary dimensions and codimensions, under a mild local-volume bound. In fact, our result covers a class of singular calibrations and singular initial data. Even in the smooth setting, this provides a new finite variational framework for mean curvature flow beyond the finite-volume regime. As a main application, we establish a general dynamical rigidity theorem for calibrated cones in arbitrary codimension: no singular calibrated cone can be desingularized by a proper oriented mean curvature flow. Our framework further yields novel rigidity theorems for solitons and convergence for two-dimensional immortal flows.

arXiv comment52 pages. Improved main results, which now cover coflat calibrations and singular initial data. Added new applications to dynamical rigidity of calibrated cones. Also slightly restructured. Comments welcome!