Hyperbolic systems of balance laws with stiff source (Q6048580)

The author studies hyperbolic systems of balance laws with relaxation terms acting only on some of the components of the state vector whereas the remaining components satisfy conservation laws. In particular, the dissipation induced by the source is only partial, which is the main difficulty in constructing the theory of the Cauchy problem in BV setting. To overcome this difficulty, the author employs the method of redistribution of damping. With the help of this method the global existence of BV solutions is established for small initial data, and the zero relaxation limit is justified.