Phase transitions and traveling waves in compressible fluids (Q2436325)

The author considers a system of evolutionary partial differential equations that model the spatiotemporal behaviour of a compressible viscous or inviscid fluid. Further, he assumes that the fluid has a constant temperature \(\theta > 0\) and that it represents a locally homogeneous mixture of two components such that its local state is completely described by the mass fraction. In the paper it can be shown that under natural assumptions the possibility of traveling waves corresponding to phase boundaries arises during a phase transition at a critical temperature. At the other hand if the temperature is lower than this critical value then there exist also interfaces across which particles undergo a phase transformation. The paper is self-contained and all the proofs are given in detail.