Global classical solution to partially dissipative quasilinear hyperbolic systems

For 1-D quasilinear hyperbolic systems, the strict dissipation or the weak linear degeneracy can prevent the formation of singularity. More precisely, if all the inhomogeneous sources are strictly dissipative, or all the characteristics are weakly linearly degenerate and the system is homogeneous, then the Cauchy problem with small and decaying initial data admits a unique global classical solution. In this paper, under some suitable hypotheses on the interaction, new kinds of weighted formulas of wave decomposition are developed to show the same result for a general class of combined systems, in which a part of equations possesses the strict dissipation and the others are weakly linearly degenerate. (C) 2011 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.