The Gradient Flow of O'Hara's Knot Energies

Jun O’Hara invented a family of knot energies $E^{j,p}$, $j,p \in (0, \infty)$\mathrm{.}Westudythenegativegradientflowofthesumofoneoftheenergies$E^\alpha = E^{\alpha,1}$,$\alpha \in (2,3)$, and a positive multiple of the length. Showing that the gradients of these knot energies can be written as the normal part of a quasilinear operator, we derive short time existence results for these flows. We then prove long time existence and convergence to critical points.