The Łojasiewicz-Simon gradient inequality for open elastic curves

Abstract: In this paper we consider the elastic energy for open curves in Euclidean space subject to clamped boundary conditions and obtain the \L ojasiewicz-Simon gradient inequality for this energy functional. Thanks to this inequality we can prove that a (suitably reparametrized) solution to the associated $L^2$-gradient flow converges for large time to an elastica, that is to a critical point of the functional.