Explore how solutions to hyperbolic conservation laws behave over time, with clear, quantitative bounds you can trust.
This classic study develops a precise decay estimate for wave patterns in systems of conservation laws. It shows how interactions between shock waves and other waves reduce the overall variation of the solution, and it explains how decay leads to improved existence results and insights into long-time behavior. The work also introduces key concepts like characteristics, entropy conditions, and the Rankine–Hugoniot relations, building a framework that handles both single equations and systems.
- Understand how wave interactions affect total variation and why decay occurs
- Learn about shocks, rarefactions, and entropy conditions that govern admissible solutions
- See how characteristics guide the evolution of solutions and the formation of discontinuities
- Get a bridge to systems using Riemann invariants and related characteristic concepts
Ideal for readers with a mathematical background in partial differential equations and an interest in the behavior of waves in conservation laws.
Peter D. Lax, PhD, is Professor Emeritus of Mathematics at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at New York University. Dr. Lax is the recipient of the Abel Prize for 2005 "for his groundbreaking contributions to the theory and application of partial differential equations and to the computation of their solutions." * A student and then colleague of Richard Courant, Fritz John, and K. O. Friedrichs, he is considered one of the world's leading mathematicians. He has had a long and distinguished career in pure and applied mathematics, and with over fifty years of experience in the field, he has made significant contributions to various areas of research, including integratable systems, fluid dynamics, and solitonic physics, as well as mathematical and scientific computing.