Stability of radiative shock profiles for hyperbolic–elliptic coupled systems

Extending previous work with Lattanzio and Mascia on the scalar (in fluid-dynamical variables) Hamer model for a radiative gas, we show nonlinear orbital asymptotic stability of small amplitude shock profiles of general systems of coupled hyperbolic–elliptic equations of the type modeling a radiative gas, that is, systems of conservation laws coupled with an elliptic equation for the radiation flux, including in particular the standard Euler–Poisson model for a radiating gas. The method is based on the derivation of pointwise Green function bounds and description of the linearized solution operator, with the main difficulty being the construction of the resolvent kernel in the case of an eigenvalue system of equations of degenerate type. Nonlinear stability then follows in standard fashion through linear estimates derived from these pointwise bounds, combined with energy estimates of nonlinear damping type.