Singular limits for a parabolic–elliptic regularization of scalar conservation laws

Abstract

We consider scalar hyperbolic conservation laws with a nonconvex flux, in one space dimension. Then, weak solutions of the associated initial value problems can contain undercompressive shock waves. We regularize the hyperbolic equation by a parabolic–elliptic system that produces undercompressive waves in the hyperbolic limit regime. Moreover we show that in another limit regime, called capillarity limit, we recover solutions of a diffusive–dispersive regularization, which is the standard regularization used to approximate undercompressive waves. In fact the new parabolic–elliptic system can be understood as a low-order approximation of the third-order diffusive–dispersive regularization, thus sharing some similarities with the relaxation approximations. A study of the traveling waves for the parabolic–elliptic system completes the paper.