No BV bounds for approximate solutions to \(p\)-system with general pressure law (Q2804489)

The authors consider \(p\)-system with general pressure law for barotropic gas dynamics in one spatial dimension. Bakhvalov's result on global existence of entropy solutions with uniformly bounded total variation is extended (and becomes necessary and sufficient): approximate solutions with arbitrary high variation are proved to exist. The pressure is assumed to be a decreasing and convex function of the specific volume. The result shows that approximate solutions can be unstable provided that Bakhvalov's condition on pressure is violated.