On the entropy conditions for some flux limited diffusion equations (Q633060)

The main aim of the paper is to give a characterization of the notion of entropy solutions of some flux-limited diffusion equations for which the solution is a function of bounded variation in space and time. In particular, the class of equations includes the so-called relativistic heat equation \[ u_t = \nu\operatorname{div}\left(\frac{u\nabla\,u}{\sqrt{u^2 + \frac{\nu^2}{c^2}|\nabla\,u^2|^2}}\right) \] and its generalization \[ u_t = \nu\operatorname{div} \left(\frac{u^m\nabla\,u}{\sqrt{u^2 + \frac{\nu^2}{c^2}|\nabla\,u^2|^2}}\right), \] where \(m \geq 1\). First, the author defines the notion of entropy for flux-limited diffusion equations \(u_t = \operatorname{div}{\mathbf a}(u,Du)\), where \({\mathbf a}(z,\xi) = \nabla_{\xi}f(z,\xi)\), and \(f:\mathbb R\times \mathbb R^N \mapsto \mathbb R^+\) is a convex function with linear growth as \(\|\xi\| \to \infty\) such that \(\nabla_{\xi}f(z,\xi) \in C(\mathbb R\times \mathbb R^N)\) and recalls its basic existence and uniqueness result, particularizing it for the generalized relativistic heat equation and proving the time regularity of solutions for any \(m\geq 1\). It is shown that \(u_t\) is a Radon measure in \((0,T)\times \mathbb R^N\) in the case of \(m = 1\) and if \(u_0\) satisfies some regularity conditions. The corresponding result for \(m > 1\) follows from the homogeneity of degree \(m \neq 1\) of the corresponding operator. Second, in order to prepare the proof of the Rankine-Hugoniot condition and the analysis of the entropy conditions the basic calculus for bounded vector fields whose divergence is a Radon measure, and the corresponding Green's formula are exposed. Then the author proves the Rankine-Hugoniot condition stating the result in a more general context and gives a characterization of the entropy conditions for the generalized relativistic heat equation describing their Cantor part and the conditions on the jump set of the solutions. Finally, the meaning of the entropy conditions on the jump set in terms of a vertical contact angle condition at places where the solution is positive are studied, and the velocity law of the discontinuity fronts is calculated.