De Giorgi varifold solutions to Mean Curvature Flow: a minimizing movements approach

Abstract

We propose an alternative existence proof of global weak solutions to mean curvature flow and volume preserving mean curvature flow. We prove for the first time for a minimizing movements scheme the unconditional convergence towards a varifold solution, here a De Giorgi solution. The argument is purely variational and does not rely on comparison principles. The key novelty is an alternative proxy for the completely degenerate $L^2$ distance that is more robust than the one of Almgren-Taylor-Wang and Luckhaus-Sturzenhecker.