Shock Formation for Compressible Euler Equations on $\mathbb{S}^2$
Abstract
In this paper, we prove the finite-time shock formation for the compressible Euler equations on the two-dimensional sphere . In contrast to the flat Euclidean case , the geometry of imposes new difficulties, and the fluid dynamics are affected by the curved background. To overcome these challenges, we modify the existing modulation method and employ a set of carefully constructed, time-dependent coordinates that precisely track the shock formation on . In particular, we first perform a time-dependent rotation of , then apply the stereographic projection to the sphere, straighten the steepening shock front, and finally construct shock-adapted coordinates. In the shock-adapted coordinates, the compressible Euler equations on can be recast into a form suitable for self-similar analysis. Within this framework, we implement a detailed bootstrap argument and establish global well-posedness for the self-similar system. After transferring these results back to the original physical system, we thereby demonstrate the finite-time shock formation on .
Cite
@article{arxiv.2512.21548,
title = {Shock Formation for Compressible Euler Equations on $\mathbb{S}^2$},
author = {Xinliang An and Haoyang Chen and Fulin Qi and Wenze Su},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2512.21548},
year = {2025}
}
Comments
89 pages