| Abstract: | We study the pressureless gas equations, with piecewise constant initial data. In the immediate solution, δ-shocks and contact
vacuum states arise and even meet (interact) eventually. A solution beyond the “interaction” is constructed. It shows that
the δ-shock will continue with the velocity it attained instantaneously before the time of interaction, and similarly, the
contact vacuum state will move past the δ-shock with a velocity value prior to the interaction. We call this the “no-effect-from-interaction”
solution.
We prove that this solution satisfies a family of convex entropies (in the Lax’s sense). Next, we construct an infinitely
large family of weak solutions to the “interaction”. Suppose further that any of these solutions satisfy a convex entropy,
it is necessary and suffcient that these solutions reduce to only the “no-effect-from-interaction” solution. In 1], Bouchut
constructed another entropy satisfying solution. As with other previous papers, it is obvious that it will not be sufficient
that a “correct” solution satisfies a convex entropy, in a non-strictly hyperbolic conservation laws system. |
