Time-periodic solutions to systems of conservation laws (Q1177430)

The existence of nontrivial time-periodic solutions for the nonlinear wave equation \[ \partial u/\partial t-\partial q/\partial x=0,\quad \partial v/\partial t-\partial\Sigma/\partial x=0, \tag{1} \] with flux boundary conditions \(q(1,t)=0\), \(\Sigma(0,t)=0\), where \(q(u,v)\), \(\Sigma(u,v)\) are given fluxes involving a combination of square roots, is shown. These time-periodic solutions do not decay to their mean values at the algebraic rate \(O\left({1\over t}\right)\), which would be true for spatially periodic solutions of the initial value problem for a genuinely nonlinear hyperbolic system of the form (1). For a particular case of (1), namely a one-parameter family \((u^ \varepsilon,v^ \varepsilon)\) of spatially and temporally periodic weak solutions, there exists a sequence of \(\varepsilon_ n\) of the \(\varepsilon\)'s which tends to zero, such that the solutions have period 1 in space, bounded independently of \(n\), and their energy is identically constant for all \(n\) and all times. Hence, these solutions to not converge strongly to zero in any energy norm. Using Riemann invariants, the proofs rely on elaborate geometric constructions, which are well explained in the paper.