Global solutions with shock waves to the generalized Riemann problem for a system of hyperbolic conservation laws with linear damping (Q853961)

The authors of this paper consider a quasilinear hyperbolic system of conservation laws with damping \[ {\partial u \over \partial t}+{\partial f(u) \over \partial x}+Lu=0, \] where \(u=(u_1,\ldots ,u_n)^T\) is the unknown vector function of \((t,x)\), \(f(u)\) is a given \(C^1\) vector function of \(u\), \(L>0\) is a real constant. The following piecewise \(C^1\) initial function exist: for \( t=0\), \(u=\varepsilon u_{+}(x)\) (\( x>0\)) and \(u=\varepsilon u_{-}(x)\) (\( x<0\)), where \(\varepsilon >0\) is a small parameter, \(u_{+}(x)\) and \(u_{-}(x)\) are \(C^1\) vector functions defined for \(x\geq 0\) and \(x\leq 0\), respectively, and \(u_{+}(0)\neq u_{-}(0)\). There exists a constant \(\mu >0\) such that \[ \sup_{x\leq 0}\{(1+| x| )^{1+\mu }(| u_{-}(x)| +| u'_{-}(x)| )\} +\sup_{x\geq 0}\{(1+| x| )^{1+\mu }(| u_{+}(x)| +| u'_{+}(x)| )\}< \infty . \] The system under consideration is strictly hyperbolic, i. e., for any given \(u\) on some domain, the Jacobian \(A(u)=\nabla f(u)\) has \(n\) real distinct eigenvalues \(\lambda_1(u)<\lambda_2(u)<\cdots <\lambda_n(u)\). The main result here is that the considered problem admits a unique global piecewise \(C^1\) solution \(u=u(t,x)\) containing only \(n\) shock waves (denoted by \(x=x(t)_i\)) (\(i=1,2,\ldots ,n\)) with small amplitude on \(t\geq 0\). This solution possesses a global structure similar to that of the similarity solution \(u=U({x\over t})\) of the corresponding homogeneous Riemann problem.