A Note on the Spreading of Characteristics for Nonconvex Conservation Laws.pdfVIP

A Note on the Spreading of Characteristics for Nonconvex Conservation Laws Helge Kristian Jenssen  Abstract We study the spreading of characteristics for a class of onedimensional scalar conser vation laws for which the ux function has exactly one p oint of inection It is wellknown that the characteristic sp eed satises a onesided Lipschitz estimate in the convex case Using Dafermos theory of generalized characteristics we show that the characteristic sp eed in the nonconvex case satises a Holder estimate at each xed time Mathematical Subject Classication L B B Key Words Scalar conservation laws without convexity Oleiniktyp e estimates Intro duction We consider scalar conservation laws of the form + uxt fuxt uxt u x xt R R t x 0 2 The ux function f is assumed to b e at least of class C It is wellknown that this equation has a unique classical solution only lo cally in time In general discontinuities develop in nite time no matter how smo oth the initial data are One is thus forced to extend the notion of a solution and consider weak solutions However this extension also entails a loss of uniqueness To obtain uniqueness in the larger class of generalized solutions one intro duces entropy conditions which single out the physical solution The theory of existence and uniqueness of entropy solutions to is more or less complete see for exa