The Cauchy problem for Chaplygin's system

Abstract

We discuss the Cauchy problem for the so-called Chaplygin system which often appears in gas, aero- and hydrodynamics. This system can be thought of as a nonlinear analogue of the Cauchy–Riemann system in the plane. We pose Cauchy data on a part of the boundary and apply variational approach to construct a solution to this ill-posed problem. The problem actually gives insight to fundamental questions related to instable problems for nonlinear equations.