Globally smooth solutions of quasilinear hyperbolic systems in diagonal form

We prove the existence of a large class of globally smooth solutions of the Cauchy problem for the system of n equations u_t + Λ(x, t, u)u_x = 0, where Λ is a diagonal matrix. We show that, under certain monotonicity conditions on both Λ and the initial data u₀, the solution u will be locally Lipschitz continuous at positive times. Since u₀ is a function of locally bounded variation, our result thus provides both for the smoothing of discontinuities in u₀ as well as for the global preservation of smoothness. The global existence results from an a priori estimate of $\text{?u}\text{?x}$, which we obtain by a device which enables us to effectively uncouple the system of equations for $\text{?u}\text{?x}$. Finally, we prove a partial converse which demonstrates that our hypotheses are not overly restrictive.