New interaction estimates for the Baiti-Jenssen system

Abstract

We establish new interaction estimates for a system introduced by Baiti and Jenssen. These estimates are pivotal to the analysis of the wave front-tracking approximation. In a companion paper we use them to construct a counter-example which shows that Schaeffer's Regularity Theorem for scalar conservation laws does not extend to systems. The counter-example we construct shows, furthermore, that a wave-pattern containing infinitely many shocks can be robust with respect to perturbations of the initial data. The proof of the interaction estimates is based on the explicit computation of the wave fan curves and on a perturbation argument.