Minimizing total variation flow

Abstract

We prove existence and uniqueness of weak solutions for the minimizing total variation flow with initial data in $L^1$. We prove that the length of the level sets of the solution, i.e., the boundaries of the level sets, decreases with time, as one would expect, and the solution converges to the spatial average of the initial datum as $t \to \infty$. We also prove that local maxima strictly decrease with time; in particular, flat zones immediately decrease their level. We display some numerical experiments illustrating these facts.