Hyperbolicity of the time-like extremal surfaces in minkowski spaces

Abstract: In this paper, it is established, in the case of graphs, that time-like extremal surfaces of dimension

1 + n

in the Minkowski space of dimension

1 + n + m

can be described by a symmetric hyperbolic system of PDEs with the very simple structure (reminiscent of the inviscid Burgers equation)

partial_t W + sum_{j=1}^n A_j(W)partial_{x_j} W =0,;;;W:;(t,x)inmathbb{R}^{1+n} ightarrow W(t,x)inmathbb{R}^{n+m+�inom{m+n}{n}},

where each

A_{j} (W)

is just a

symmetric matrix dependinglinearly on

W

.

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