Canonical form of a quasilinear hyperbolic system of First order equations

Abstract

A canonical form of the compatability condition along a characteristic surface for a quasilinear hyperbolic system of first order equations in m+ 1 independent variables is derived. This form of the compatibility condition is distinguished by the fact that special emphasis is given to the interior derivative in the bicharacteristic direction, which alone contains derivatives of the type ∂/∂t, whereas all other interior derivatives present are spatial in nature.