On the breakdown of solutions to \(N\times N\) quasilinear hyperbolic systems (Q1863600)

This paper deals with the development of singularities to the \(C^1\)-solutions of a quasilinear \(N\times N\) strictly hyperbolic systems of the type \(U_t+ A(U) U_x= 0\) in one space dimension. Generalizing the nonlinearity condition introduced by MacCamy and Mizel the author proves some results on the gradient blow up of \(U(t,x)\) without restrictions on the size of the compactly supported initial data \(U_0(x)\not\equiv 0\). Here is the formulation of Theorem 1.1. Suppose that \(U= 0\) is a strictly absolute minimum (maximum) for the eigenvalues \(\lambda_i(U)\) of the hyperbolic matrix \(A(U)\). Then every nontrivial \(C^1\)-solution with Cauchy data \(U_0\in C^1_0\) develops singularities in finite time.