Initial boundary value problems for quasilinear symmetric hyperbolic systems with characteristic boundary (Q1956528)

The author considers the quasilinear initial-boundary-value symmetric hyperbolic first-order system \[ \alpha_0(x,u)\partial_{t}u + \sum_{i=1}^n{\alpha_i(x,u)\partial_{x_i}u} = f(x,u), \] \(x\in\mathbb R^{n}\), \(u\in\mathbb R^N\), \((t,x)\in[0,h]\times\Omega\subset\mathbb R^{n+1}\), \(f\) and \(\partial\Omega\) are sufficiently smooth. Initial condition is homogeneous (without loss of generality), boundary condition is \(Mu=0\). Other assumptions deal with properties of \(\alpha_i\) and the boundary. Existence of the unique smooth time-local solution is proved. The technique extends the theory of linear symmetric hyperbolic systems to the nonlinear case. Applications to gas dynamics are described.