A Monotone, Second Order Accurate Scheme for Curvature Motion

We present a second order accurate in time numerical scheme for curve shortening flow in the plane that is unconditionally monotone. It is a variant of threshold dynamics, a class of algorithms in the spirit of the level set method that represent interfaces implicitly. The novelty is monotonicity: it is possible to preserve the comparison principle of the exact evolution while achieving second order in time consistency. As a consequence of monotonicity, convergence to the viscosity solution of curve shortening is ensured by existing theory.