Global solutions of the Navier-Stokes equations for compressible flow with density-dependent viscosity and discontinuous initial data

In this paper, we study the evolutions of the interfaces between the gas and the vacuum for viscous one-dimensional isentropic gas motions. We prove the global existence and uniqueness for discontinuous solutions of the Navier-Stokes equations for compressible flow with density-dependent viscosity coefficient. Precisely, the viscosity coefficient mu is proportional to rho(0) with 0 < theta < 1. Specifically, we require that the initial density be piecewise smooth with arbitrarily large jump discontinuities, bounded above and below away from zero, in the interior of gas. We show that the discontinuities in the density persist for all time, and give a decay result for the density as t -> + infinity. (c) 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.