The elastic flow of curves in the hyperbolic plane

Abstract

We consider closed curves in the hyperbolic space moving by the $L^2$-gradient flow of the elastic energy and prove well-posedness and long time existence. Under the additional penalisation of the length we show subconvergence to critical points. A motivation for the study of this flow is given by the relation between elastic curves in the hyperbolic plane and Willmore surfaces of revolution.