Nonlinear stability of entropy waves for the Euler equations

In this article, we consider a class of the contact discontinuity for the full compressible Euler equations, namely the entropy wave, where the velocity is continuous across the interface while the density and the entropy can have jumps. The nonlinear stability of entropy waves is a longstanding open problem in multi-dimensional hyperbolic conservation laws. The rigorous treatments are challenging due to the characteristic discontinuity nature of the problem (G.-Q. Chen and Y.-G. Wang in Nonlinear partial differential equations, Volume 7 of Abel Symp.(2012)). In this article, we discover that the Taylor sign condition plays an essential role in the nonlinear stability of entropy waves. By deriving the evolution equation of the interface in the Eulerian coordinates, we relate the Taylor sign condition to the hyperbolicity of this evolution equation, which reveals a stability condition of the entropy wave. With the optimal regularity estimates of the interface, we can derive the a priori estimates without loss of regularity.