Well-posedness for general 2×2 systems of conservation laws (Q4809802)

The authors consider the Cauchy problem for a strictly hyperbolic \(2\times 2\)-system of conservation laws in one space dimension \[ u_t+F(u)_x=0, \quad u(0,x)=\bar u(x). \tag{1} \] The system is assumed to be neither linealy degenerate nor genuinely nonlinear but must satisfy some assumptions on behavior of curves in the space \(u\in {\mathbb R}^2\), on which the characteristic fields degenerate. For such systems the authors prove the existence of a uniformly Lipschitz continuous semigroup on some closed set in \(L^1\), containing all functions with sufficiently small total variation. The trajectories of this semigroup are weak solutions of the Cauchy problem (1). It is also proved that, conversely, a piecewise Lipschitz entropic solution of (1) coincides with the corresponding trajectory. This result yields the uniqueness and continuous dependence of entropy-admissible weak solutions of (1) with small initial data.