An Ill Posed Cauchy Problem for a Hyperbolic System in Two Space Dimensions

The theory of weak solutions for nonlinear conservation laws is now well developed in the case of scalar equations [3] and for one-dimensional hyperbolic systems [1, 2]. For systems in several space dimensions, however, even the global existence of solutions to the Cauchy problem remains a challenging open question. In this note we construct a conterexample showing that, even for a simple class of hyperbolic systems, in two space dimensions the Cauchy problem can be ill posed.