Conservation Laws with Discontinuous Gradient-Dependent Flux: the Stable Case

Abstract

The paper is concerned with a scalar conservation law with discontinuous gradient-dependent flux. Namely, the flux is described by two different functions $f(u)$ or $g(u)$, when the gradient $u_x$ of the solution is positive or negative, respectively. We study here the stable case where $f(u)<g(u)$ for all $u\in \mathbb{R}$, with $f,g$ smooth but possibly not convex. A front tracking algorithm is introduced, proving that piecewise constant approximations converge to the trajectories of a contractive semigroup on ${\mathbf{L}}^1(\mathbb{R})$. In the spatially periodic case, we prove that semigroup trajectories coincide with the unique limits of a suitable class of vanishing viscosity approximations.

44 pages, 15 figures