Formation of singularities for viscosity solutions of hamilton—jacobi equations in one space variable

Abstract

In this work we study the generation and propagation of singularities (shock waves) of the solution of the Cauchy problem for Hamilton-Jacobi equations in one space variable, under no assumption on the convexity or concavity of the hamiltonian. We study the problem in the class of viscosity solutions, which is the correct class of weak solutions. We obtain the exact global structure of the shock waves by studying the way the characteristics cross. We construct the viscosity solution by either selecting a single-valued branch of the multi-valued function given as a solution by the method of characteristics or constructing explicitly the proper rarefaction waves.