Deforming area-preserving maps between surfaces by mean curvature flow coupled with Ricci flow

Abstract

We study a natural way to deform area-preserving maps between compact Riemann surfaces. Specifically, we evolve the metrics on the two Riemann surfaces by the normalized Ricci flow and the graph of the area-preserving map by the mean curvature flow. We prove that the flow exists for all time, remains the graph of an area-preserving map, and converges smoothly and exponentially to a minimal Lagrangian graph with respect to the product of the limiting metrics. This generalizes earlier results of Wang and Smoczyk, in which the Riemann surfaces have constant scalar curvature.