Convergence to a diffusive contact wave for solutions to a system of hyperbolic balance laws

Abstract

We consider a [Formula: see text] system of hyperbolic balance laws that is the converted form under inverse Hopf–Cole transformation of a Keller–Segel type chemotaxis model. We study Cauchy problem when Cauchy data connect two different end-states as [Formula: see text]. The background wave is a diffusive contact wave of the reduced system. We establish global existence of solution and study the time asymptotic behavior. In the special case where the cellular population initially approaches its stable equilibrium value as [Formula: see text], we obtain nonlinear stability of the diffusive contact wave under smallness assumption. In the general case where the population initially does not approach to its stable equilibrium value at least at one of the far fields, we use a correction function in the time asymptotic ansatz, and show that the population approaches logistically to its stable equilibrium value. Our result shows two significant differences when comparing to Euler equations with damping. The first one is the existence of a secondary wave in the time asymptotic ansatz. This implies that our solutions converge to the diffusive contact wave slower than those of Euler equations with damping. The second one is that the correction function logistically grows rather than exponentially decays.