A dynamic approach to heterogeneous elastic wires

Abstract

We consider closed planar curves with fixed length and arbitrary winding number whose elastic energy depends on an additional density variable and a spontaneous curvature. Working with the inclination angle, the associated $L^2$-gradient flow is a nonlocal quasilinear coupled parabolic system of second order. We show local well-posedness, global existence of solutions, and full convergence of the flow for initial data in a weak regularity class.