Hydrodynamical limit for the asymmetric simple exclusion process (Q1091685)

The asymptotic behavior of the one-dimensional asymmetric simple exclusion process \((X_ t)_{t\geq 0}\) with transitions to nearest neighbors is investigated. It is assumed that the initial distribution is a product measure corresponding to two half-spaces in equilibrium with different parameters. It is proved in the paper that for the family of processes \((X^ h_ t)_{t\geq 0}\) obtained from \((X_ t)_{t\geq 0}\) by appropriate time and space rescaling, the strong law of large numbers holds. In other words \(X^ h_ t(x)dx\) converges weakly almost surely to a deterministic measure with a density called the density profile, as the rescaling parameter h goes to zero. Using the coupling procedure it is shown that the density profile is a weak solution to a first order nonlinear hyperbolic partial differential equation. The monotonicity of this process permits to show also that it is the unique solution satisfying the entropy condition. As a consequence the local equilibrium at each point of continuity of the density profile is obtained.