Mean curvature flow singularities for mean convex surfaces

Abstract.

We study the evolution by mean curvature of a smooth n–dimensional surface ${\cal M}\subset{\Bbb R}^{n+1}$, compact and with positive mean curvature. We first prove an estimate on the negative part of the scalar curvature of the surface. Then we apply this result to study the formation of singularities by rescaling techniques, showing that there exists a sequence of rescaled flows converging to a smooth limit flow of surfaces with nonnegative scalar curvature. This gives a classification of the possible singular behaviour for mean convex surfaces in the case $n=2$.