An Evans function approach to spectral stability of small-amplitude shock profiles (Q1884489)

The authors study spectral stability in the small amplitude limit of smooth shock profiles arising under various regularizations of a hyperbolic system of conservation laws (such as viscous conservation laws or relaxation systems). They use the refined technique of Evans functions and describe the direct and readily generalizable procedure to show small amplitude spectral stability. Their approach both recovers the results obtained by energy methods, and yields new results. In particular, one-dimensional stability of small amplitude relaxation profiles is established.