Conservation Laws with Discontinuous Flux: A First Application to Traffic Flow

Abstract

This work provides a traffic flow interpretation of the model recently introduced in \cite{ABS2025}. We adapt the conservation law with discontinuous gradient-dependent flux to a macroscopic traffic setting, assuming concave flux functions $f(u)$ and $g(u)$ defined on the density domain $[0,u_{\max }]$. To prevent violations of the maximal density constraint, we introduce modified Riemann Solvers tailored to this setting and generalize the existence theory for weak solutions developed in \cite{ABS2025}. Finally, we construct Riemann Solvers for a broader two-phase model incorporating a free-flow regime, in which $f(u)=g(u)$ on a subset of $[0,u_{\max }]$, and establish existence of weak solutions in this more general framework.