ON BOUNDARY CONDITIONS FOR FIRST-ORDER SYMMETRIC HYPERBOLIC SYSTEMS WITH CONSTRAINTS

Abstract

The Cauchy problem for many first-order symmetric hyperbolic (FOSH) systems is constraint preserving, i.e. the solution satisfies certain spatial differential constraints whenever the initial data does. Frequently, artificial space cut-offs are performed for such evolution systems, usually out of the necessity for finite computational domains. However, it may easily happen that boundary conditions at the artificial boundary for such a system lead to an initial boundary value problem which, while well-posed, does not preserve the constraints. Here we consider the problem of finding constraint-preserving boundary conditions for constrained FOSH systems in the well-posed class of maximal non-negative boundary conditions. Based on a characterization of maximal non-negative boundary conditions, we discuss a systematic technique for finding such boundary conditions that preserve the constraints, pending that the constraints satisfy a FOSH system themselves. We exemplify this technique by analyzing a system of wave equations in a first-order formulation subject to divergence constraints.