An energy approach to uniqueness for higher-order geometric flows

Abstract

We demonstrate that the uniqueness of solutions to a broad class of parabolic geometric evolution equations can be proven via a direct and essentially classical energy argument which avoids the DeTurck trick entirely. Previously, we have used a variation of this technique to give an alternative proof and slight extension to the basic uniqueness result for complete solutions to the Ricci flow of uniformly bounded curvature. Here we extend this approach to curvature flows of all orders, including the $L^2$-curvature flow and a class of quasilinear higher-order flows related to the obstruction tensor. We also detail its application to the fully nonlinear cross-curvature flow.