FORMAL ASYMPTOTIC EXPANSIONS FOR SYMMETRIC ANCIENT OVALS IN MEAN CURVATURE FLOW

We provide formal matched asymptotic expansions for ancient convex solutions to MCF. The formal analysis leading to the solutions is analogous to that for the generic MCF neck pinch in [1]. For any p, q with p + q = n, p >= 1, q >= 2 we find a formal ancient solution which is a small perturbation of an ellipsoid. For t -> -infinity the solution becomes increasingly astigmatic: q of its major axes have length approximate to root 2(q - 1)(-t), while the other p axes have length approximate to root-2t log(-t). We conjecture that an analysis similar to that in [2] will lead to a rigorous construction of ancient solutions to MCF with the asymptotics described in this paper.