English

Smooth solutions and singularity formation for the inhomogeneous nonlinear wave equation

Analysis of PDEs 2011-05-17 v1

Abstract

We study the nonlinear inhomogeneous wave equation in one space dimension: vttT(v,x)xx=0v_{tt} - T(v,x)_{xx} = 0. By constructing some "decoupled" Riccati type equations for smooth solutions, we provide a singularity formation result without restrictions on the total variation of unknown, which generalize earlier singularity results of Lax and the first author. These results are applied to several one-dimensional hyperbolic models, such as compressible Euler flows with a general pressure law, elasticity in an inhomogeneous medium, transverse MHD flow, and compressible flow in a variable area duct.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1105.3174,
  title  = {Smooth solutions and singularity formation for the inhomogeneous nonlinear wave equation},
  author = {Geng Chen and Robin Young},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1105.3174},
  year   = {2011}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-21T18:08:04.865Z