The length-preserving elastic flow with free boundary on hypersurfaces in $\mathbb{R}^n$

Abstract

We study the length-preserving elastic flow of curves in arbitrary codimension with free boundary on hypersurfaces. This constrained gradient flow is given by a nonlocal evolution equation with nonlinear higher-order boundary conditions. We prove global existence and subconvergence to critical points. The proof strategy involves a careful treatment of short-time existence, uniqueness, and parabolic energy estimates.