Nonlinear stability of strong planar rarefaction waves for the relaxation approximation of conservation laws in several space dimensions (Q1566837)

The authors investigate a hyperbolic system of conservation laws \({\mathbf u}_t+\sum_{j=1}^N{\mathbf F}_j(u)_{x_j}=0\), \( \mathbf u\in \mathbb{R}^n,\) \((t,{\mathbf x})\in\mathbb{R}^+\times \mathbb{R}^N\). This system can be approximated by the relaxation system \( {\mathbf u}_t +\sum_{j=1}^N({\mathbf v}_j)_{x_j}=0\), \({\mathbf u}\in \mathbb{R}^n\), \({\mathbf v}_j\in\mathbb{R}^n\), \(({\mathbf v}_j)_{t}+{\mathbf A}_j {\mathbf u}_{x_j}=-\varepsilon^{-1}({\mathbf v}_j- {\mathbf F}_j ({\mathbf u}))\), \(( j=1,2,\dots ,N)\), where \({\mathbf A}_j =a_j{\mathbf I}\) \((j=1,2,\dots ,N)\) and \(\mathbf I\) is the \(n\times n\) identity matrix. This relaxation system as well as a numerical scheme have been proposed by \textit{S. Jin} and \textit{Z. P. Xin} [SIAM J. Numer. Anal. 35, No. 6, 2385-2404 (1998; Zbl 0921.65063)]. The main features of the proposed scheme are its generality and simplicity. In this paper the authors consider the nonlinear time asymptotic stability of strong planar rarefaction waves for the above stated relaxation approximation. In two-dimensional case for instance \(u_t+f(u)_x+g(u)_y=0\), \(u\in \mathbb{R}\), the relaxation approximation becomes \(u_t+v_{1x}+v_{2y}=0\), \(v_{1t}+a_1u_x=-\varepsilon^{-1}(v_1-f(u))\) (\(u,v_1,v_2\in\mathbb{R}\)), \(v_{2t}+a_2u_y=-\varepsilon^{-1}(v_2-g(u))\). Here the real constants \(a_1,a_2>0\) satisfy the subcharacteristic condition \(\sup_{u\in M}\{a_1^{-1}[f'(u)]^2+a_2^{-1}[g'(u)]^2\}<1\), where \(M\subset \mathbb{R}\) is the state space. The initial data satisfy some asymptotic conditions. The main result is that the Cauchy problem for the considered hyperbolic system admits a unique global smooth solution \(u\) which satisfies \(\sup_{t\geq 0}\|u(t,x)\|_{L^{\infty }(\mathbb{R})}\leq B(N_0)\). Here \(B(N_0)\) is a proper constant.