01240nas a2200121   4500008004300000245006600043210005900109260001000168520086800178100002101046700001501067856003601082       2004                        en_Ud  00aOn the convergence rate of vanishing viscosity approximations0 aconvergence rate of vanishing viscosity approximations  bWiley3 aGiven a strictly hyperbolic, genuinely nonlinear system of conservation laws, we prove the a priori bound $\\\\big\\\\|u(t,\\\\cdot)-u^\\\\ve(t,\\\\cdot)\\\\big\\\\|_{\\\\L^1}= \\\\O(1)(1+t)\\\\cdot \\\\sqrt\\\\ve|\\\\ln\\\\ve|$ on the distance between an exact BV solution $u$ and a viscous approximation $u^\\\\ve$, letting the viscosity coefficient $\\\\ve\\\\to 0$. In the proof, starting from $u$ we construct an approximation of the viscous solution $u^\\\\ve$ by taking a mollification $u*\\\\phi_{\\\\strut \\\\sqrt\\\\ve}$ and inserting viscous shock profiles at the locations of finitely many large shocks, for each fixed $\\\\ve$. Error estimates are then obtained by introducing new Lyapunov functionals which control shock interactions, interactions between waves of different families and by using sharp decay estimates for positive nonlinear waves.1 aBressan, Alberto1 aYang, Tong  uhttp://hdl.handle.net/1963/2915