Front tracking approximations for slow erosion (Q414763)

The authors study an integro-differential equation describing the slow erosion in a model of granular flow. In this equation, the flux is non-local and depends on \(x\) and \(t\). The authors obtain approximate solutions using a front tracking technique adapted to this special equation. The convergence of these approximate solutions is established by means of suitable a priori estimates. In turn, this confirms the global existence of entropy solutions in BV. Such entropy solutions are shown to be unique. In addition, the authors prove the continuous dependence of approximate and exact solutions on the initial data and the erosion function. This establishes the well-posedness of the corresponding Cauchy problem.