Global existence and optimal decay rates of solutions to conservation laws with diffusion‐type terms

We consider the Cauchy problem on nonlinear scalar conservation laws with a diffusion‐type source term. Based on a low‐frequency and high‐frequency decomposition, Green's function method and the classical energy method, we not only obtain L² time‐decay estimates but also establish the global existence of solutions to Cauchy problem when the initial data u₀(x) satisfies the smallness condition on , but not on . Furthermore, by taking a time‐frequency decomposition, we obtain the optimal decay estimates of solutions. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.