Global solvability in the whole space for a class of first order quasilinear hyperbolic systems (Q1081756)

The authors are concerned with the problem of finding conditions under which existence of a smooth solution for first order quasilinear hyperbolic systems in diagonal form can be obtained globally in 2- dimensional Euclidean space-time. Previously the second author has obtained a result for the case of one equation of the following type: The equation \(\partial U/\partial t+\lambda (U) \partial U/\partial x=0\) has non-trivial, bounded global smooth solutions in the whole space iff there exists an interval \([U_ 1,U_ 2]\) such that \(\lambda\) '(U)\(\equiv 0\) for all \(U\in [U_ 1,U_ 2]\), i.e. the equation is linear in a certain region. The present paper deals with similar considerations in the system case (i.e. \(U: {\mathbb{R}}^ 2\to {\mathbb{R}}^ n\), n integer). The authors obtain sufficient conditions for the existence of non-trivial, bounded global solutions in the whole space involving conditions of local vanishing of the partial derivatives \(\partial \lambda_ i/\partial U_ i\), as functions of \(U_ i\), \(i=1,2,...,n\). The reverse question: ''What happens if this condition is violated ?'' is also considered. The case of two equations is given particular attention.