Nonlinear stability of time-periodic viscous shocks (Q982307)

The authors generalize some theorems on the spectral and nonlinear stability of viscous shock waves to the case of time-periodic waves, i.e., solutions of a system of viscous conservation laws \[ u_t+ f(u)_x=u_{xx}, x\in\mathbb R, \quad u\in\mathbb R^N, \] which are time-periodic in a uniformly moving coordinate frame. In particular it is shown that for Lax shock waves appropriately defined spectral stability is equivalent to linearized stability in \(L^1\cap H^{\rho}\) where \(\rho\geq 0\). This implies nonlinear stability with respect to a weighted \(H^3\)-norm. Moreover, detailed pointwise bounds for the Green's function associated with the linearized system along a time-periodic Lax shock is given. The results can be used to show nonlinear stability of some time-periodic waves with large-amplitude shocks. In contrast to many results on the stability of viscous shocks the proofs in this article do not use the Evans function. Instead, spatial dynamics and the meromorphic extension of exponential dichotomies across the imaginary axis are used to derive pointwise estimates for the Green's function using a complex contour integral. This approach, which is necessary due to the fact that the linearized operator is time-dependent, can possibly be used in other situations where an Evans function is not available.