Curve shortening flow on Riemann surfaces with conical singularities

Abstract We study the curve shortening flow on Riemann surfaces with finitely many conformal conical singularities. If the initial curve is passing through the singular points, then the evolution is governed by a degenerate quasilinear parabolic equation. In this case, we establish short time existence, uniqueness, and regularity of the flow. We also show that the evolving curves stay fixed at the singular points of the surface and obtain some contracting and convergence results.