Exact shock solution of a coupled system of delay differential equations: a car-following model

Abstract

In this paper, we present exact shock solutions of a coupled system of delay differential equations, which was introduced as a traffic-flow model called {\it the car-following model}. We use the Hirota method, originally developed in order to solve soliton equations. %While, with a periodic boundary condition, this system has % a traveling-wave solution given by elliptic functions. The relevant delay differential equations have been known to allow exact solutions expressed by elliptic functions with a periodic boundary conditions. In the present work, however, shock solutions are obtained with open boundary, representing the stationary propagation of a traffic jam.