Linear stability of shock profiles for a rate-type viscoelastic system with relaxation (Q4497930)

The authors study the initial value problem \[ (1)\quad v_t-u_x=0, \qquad(2)\quad u_t+ p_x=0, \qquad(3)\quad (p+Ev)_t=- \frac{p-p_R(v)}{\tau}, \] where \(E\) and \(\tau\) are positive constants. This initial value problem is introduced as relaxation approximation of the hyperbolic system of conservation laws \[ (4)\quad v_t- u_x=0, \qquad(5)\quad u_t+ (p_R(v))_x=0. \] The authors study the stability of shock profiles. If \((s; v^-, u^-; v^+,u^+)\) is a shock of (4), (5), a shock profile is a solution \((\overline{v}, \overline{u}, \overline{p}) (x,t)= (\overline{v}, \overline{u}, \overline{p})(y)\) of (1)--(3) satisfying \[ \lim_{y\to\pm\infty} \overline{v}(y)= v^{\pm}, \quad \lim_{y\to\pm\infty} \overline{u}(y)= u^{\pm}, \quad \lim_{y\to\pm\infty} \overline{p}(y)= p_R(v^{\pm}), \] where \(y= (x-st)/\tau\). More precisely, the authors show that a smooth solution to a linearization of the system (1)--(3) converges asymptotically for \(t\to \infty\) to a shock profile, provided that (4)--(5) is genuinely nonlinear, that \(E+ p_R'(v)> 0\) for \(v^-\leq v\leq v^+\), and that the initial data satisfy some conditions. For the proof they construct an expansion of the solution of the linearized system.