On stability of shock waves in a compressible viscous heat conducting gas

Shock waves for the compressible Navier-Stokes equations with heat conduction are analyzed. The shock wave is viewed as a strong discontinuity on which surface modified Rankine-Hugoniot conditions hold. These jump conditions are derived by the usual way from the system of viscous conservation laws. The linear instability of planar shock waves is proved. This points, in particular, to the inadequate character of numerical computations for viscous flows near blunt bodies with a bow discontinuous shock wave.