Dynamics of Singularity Surfaces for Compressible Navier-Stokes Flows in Two Space Dimensions
We prove the global existence of solutions of the Navier-Stokes equations of compressible, barotropic flow in two space dimensions with piecewise smooth initial data. These solutions remain piecewise smooth for all time, retaining simple jump discontinuities in the density and in the divergence of the velocity across a smooth curve, which is convected with the flow. The strengths of these discontinuities are shown to decay exponentially in time, more rapidly for larger acoustic speeds and smaller...