Stability of traveling waves for Hamilton-Jacobi equations with finite speed perturbations. (Q1412355)

The author considers the following Hamilton-Jacobi equation with a hyperbolic perturbation: \[ u_t + H(\nabla u) + \varepsilon(u_{tt} - \Delta u) = 0 \] where \(\varepsilon > 0\). He is interested in the stability of planar wave solutions of the form \(U_0(x,t) = \phi(x_1 -st)\), where \(\phi\) is a suitable waveform with \(\phi'(-\infty) = u_l\), \(\phi'(+\infty) = u_r < u_l\), and the appropriate Rankine-Hugoniot condition holds. Assuming that \(H\) is convex and smooth and that \(| u_r - u_l| \) is small, he proves that \(\| u(\cdot,t) - U_0(\cdot,t)\| _{L^2} \to 0\) and \(\| u_t(\cdot,t) - U_{0,t}(\cdot,t)\| _{L^2} + \| \nabla u(\cdot,t) - \nabla U_0(\cdot,t)\| _{L^2} = O(e^{-dt})\), if the initial data are sufficiently close to \(U_0(\cdot,0)\) in higher order energy norms. The proof utilizes energy estimates and shows that various other higher order energy norms of \(u - U_0\) also remains small for all \(t\).