Paper · Sep 8, 2026
Formation and structural stability of nondegenerate neckpinches
As on arXiv
Abstract
In this paper, we study the formation, precise asymptotics, and structural stability of neckpinch singularities in mean curvature flow. Motivated by the static rigidity of cylindrical self-shrinkers established by Colding, Ilmanen and Minicozzi, we first prove a dynamical rigidity result: mean curvature flow of hypersurfaces that are initially graphically close to a generalized cylinder on a sufficiently large scale, subject to a localized quadratic upward bending, inevitably develop a neckpinch singularity in finite time. We also establish sharp asymptotic expansions for the profile functions of these locally evolving graphs. We show that the rescaled graphical radius converges to a specific polynomial profile with quadratic bending, proving that the resulting singularities are nondegenerate. Finally, we establish an openness theorem showing that nondegenerate neckpinches are structurally stable under C^2 perturbations of the initial data. Combined with recent density theorems for the 3-dimensional mean curvature flow by Szekelyhidi, our results confirm that nondegenerate neckpinches constitute a generic and stable phenomenon in 3-dimensional mean curvature flow.
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Read around it
Background reading
The guides for the topics of this paper: what each idea is, why it matters, and the papers to read first.
In the guidebook
- 10A.1A Zoo of Three-Manifolds
The 3-sphere, lens spaces, the Poincaré sphere, the Hopf fibration and the shape of space.
- 10A.2Finite Rotation Groups and Spherical Space Forms
Klein's classification by counting poles, the binary groups, and every quotient of the round 3-sphere.
- 10A.4Homotopy Groups, Degree and the Hurewicz Theorem
Spheres mapped into manifolds: the algebraic topology that finite extinction runs on.