Non-convex entropies for conservation laws with involutions

The paper discusses systems of conservation laws endowed with involutions and contingent entropies. Under the assumption that the contingent entropy function is convex merely in the direction of a cone in state space, associated with the involution, it is shown that the Cauchy problem is locally well posed in the class of classical solutions, and that classical solutions are unique and stable even within the broader class of weak solutions that satisfy an entropy inequality. This is on a par with the classical theory of solutions to hyperbolic systems of conservation laws endowed with a convex entropy. The equations of elastodynamics provide the prototypical example for the above setting.