. Let $u_t+f(u)_x=0$ be a strictly hyperbolic $n\times n$ system of conservation laws, each characteristic field being linearly degenerate or genuinely nonlinear. In this paper we explicitly define a functional $\Phi=\Phi(u,v)$, equivalent to the $\L^1$ distance, which is almost decreasing i.e., $$ \Phi\big( u(t),~v(t)\big)-\Phi\big( u(s),~v(s)\big)\leq \O(\ve)\cdot (t-s)\quad\hbox{for all}~~t&gt;s\geq 0,$$ for every pair of <i></i>-approximate solutions <i>u</i>, <i>v</i> with small total variation, generated by a wave front tracking algorithm. The small parameter <i></i> here controls the errors in the wave speeds, the maximum size of rarefaction fronts and the total strength of all non-physical waves in <i>u</i> and in <i>v</i>. From the above estimate, it follows that front-tracking approximations converge to a unique limit solution, depending Lipschitz continuously on the initial data, in the ${\vec L}^1$ norm. This provides a new proof of the existence of the

This paper is concerned with the derivation and analysis of hydrodynamic models for systems of self-propelled particles subject to alignment interaction and attraction-repulsion. The starting point is the kinetic model considered in earlier work of Degond & Motsch with the addition of an attraction-repulsion interaction potential. Introducing different scalings than in Degond & Motsch, the non-local effects of the alignment and attraction-repulsion interactions can be kept in the hydrodynamic limit and result in extra pressure, viscosity terms and capillary force. The systems are shown to be symmetrizable hyperbolic systems with viscosity terms. A local-in-time existence result is proved in the 2D case for the viscous model and in the 3D case for the inviscid model. The proof relies on the energy method.

In this paper we study the asymptotic nonlinear stability of discrete shocks for the Lax-Friedrichs scheme for approximating general m×m systems of nonlinear hyperbolic conservation laws. It is shown that weak single discrete shocks for such a scheme are nonlinearly stable in the Lp-norm for all p ≧ 1, provided that the sums of the initial perturbations equal zero. These results should shed light on the convergence of the numerical solution constructed by the Lax-Friedrichs scheme for the single-shock solution of system of hyperbolic conservation laws. If the Riemann solution corresponding to the given far-field states is a superposition of m single shocks from each characteristic family, we show that the corresponding multiple discrete shocks are nonlinearly stable in Lp (P ≧ 2). These results are proved by using both a weighted estimate and a characteristic energy method based on the internal structures of the discrete shocks and the essential monotonicity of the Lax-Friedrichs scheme.

We estimate the heat conducted by a cluster of many small cavities. We show that the dominating heat is a sum, over the number of cavities, of the heat generated by each cavity after interacting with each other. This interaction is described through densities computable as solutions of a closed, and invertible, system of time domain integral equations of second kind. As an application of these expansions, we derive the effective heat conductivity which generates approximately the same heat as the cluster of cavities, distributed in a three-dimensional bounded domain, with explicit error estimates in terms of that cluster. At the analysis level, we use time domain integral equations. Doing that, we have two choices. First, we can favor the space variable by reducing the heat potentials to the ones related to the Laplace operator (avoiding Laplace transform). Second, we can favor the time variable by reducing the representation to the Abel integral operator. As the model under investigation has time-independent parameters, we follow the first approach here.

For<i>nn</i> systems of conservation laws in one dimension without source terms, the existence of global weak solutions was proved by Glimm [1]. Glimm constructed approximate solutions using a difference scheme by solving a class of Riemann problems.