On the $L^2$ stability of shock waves for finite-entropy solutions of Burgers

TL;DR

This paper establishes $L^2$ stability estimates for shock waves in scalar conservation laws with possibly non-entropic solutions, extending previous entropy-only results and incorporating an error term related to entropy production.

Contribution

It generalizes $L^2$ stability results to include non-entropic solutions and initial data with bounded variation, with an explicit error term for entropy production.

Findings

Proves $L^2$ stability estimates for non-entropic shocks.

Includes an error term for entropy production measure.

Extends stability results to initial data with bounded variation.

Abstract

We prove $L^2$ stability estimates for entropic shocks among weak, possibly \emph{non-entropic}, solutions of scalar conservation laws $\partial_t u+\partial_x f(u)=0$ with strictly convex flux function $f$. This generalizes previous results by Leger and Vasseur, who proved $L^2$ stability among entropy solutions. Our main result, the estimate \begin{align*} \int_{\mathbb R} |u(t,\cdot)-u_0^{shock}(\cdot -x(t))|^2\,dx\leq \int_{\mathbb R}|u_0-u_0^{shock}|^2 +C\mu_+([0,t]\times\R), \end{align*} for some Lipschitz shift $x(t)$, includes an error term accounting for the positive part of the entropy production measure $\mu=\partial_t(u^2/2)+\partial_x q(u)$, where $q'(u)=uf'(u)$. Stability estimates in this general non-entropic setting are of interest in connection with large deviation principles for the hydrodynamic limit of asymmetric interacting particle systems. Our proof adapts the scheme devised by Leger and Vasseur, where one constructs a shift $x(t)$ which allows to bound from above the time-derivative of the left-hand side. The main difference lies in the fact that our solution $u(t,\cdot)$ may present a non-entropic shock at $x=x(t)$ and new bounds are needed in that situation. We also generalize this stability estimate to initial data with bounded variation.