Global entropy solutions to the relativistic Euler equations for a class of large initial data

We are concerned with global entropy solutions to the relativistic Euler equations for a class of large initial data which involve the interaction of shock waves and rarefaction waves. We first carefully analyze the global behavior of the shock curves, the rarefaction wave curves, and their corresponding inverse curves in the phase plane. Based on these analyses, we use the Glimm scheme to construct global entropy solutions to the relativistic Euler equations for the class of large discontinuous initial data.Received: May 23, 2004