Local limit of nonlocal traffic models: convergence results and total variation blow-up (Q2046471)

This paper deals with the nonlocal Cauchy problem \[ u_{\varepsilon,t}+(u_\varepsilon V(u_\varepsilon*\eta_\varepsilon))_x =0, \qquad u_\varepsilon(0,\cdot)=u_0, \] where \(u_\varepsilon\) is the unknown and \(V\) is a given Lipschitz continuous function. The convolution kernel \(\eta_\varepsilon\) defined as \[ \eta_\varepsilon(x) = \eta\left(\frac{x}{\varepsilon}\right)\frac{1}{\varepsilon}, \qquad x\in\mathbb{R}, \] where \[ \eta\ge0,\qquad \text{supp}(\eta)\subset(-\infty,0],\qquad \| \eta\|_{L^1}=1,\qquad \sup_{(-\infty,0)}\frac{\eta}{\eta'}<\infty. \] On the function \(V\) they assume that \[ V\in C^2,\qquad V''\le0,\qquad V (u_{\max}) = 0,\qquad V '(u) \le -\delta\>\text{for every}\> u\in [0, u_{\max}] \] for some \(\delta,\,u_{\max}>0\). The authors prove that, as \(\varepsilon \to 0\), \(u_\varepsilon\) converges to the entropy solution of the Cauchy Problem \[ u_{t}+(u V(u))_x =0, \qquad u(0,\cdot)=u_0. \]