Nonlinear compressible vortex sheets in two space dimensions

We consider supersonic compressible vortex sheets for the isentropic Euler equations of gas dynamics in two space dimensions. The problem is a free boundary nonlinear hyperbolic problem with two main difficulties: the free boundary is characteristic, and the so-called Lopatinskii condition holds only in a weak sense, which yields losses of derivatives. Nevertheless, we prove the local existence of such piecewise smooth solutions to the Euler equations. Since the a priori estimates for the linearized equations exhibit a loss of regularity, our existence result is proved by using a suitable modification of the Nash-Moser iteration scheme. We also show how a similar analysis yields the existence of weakly stable shock waves in isentropic gas dynamics, and the existence of weakly stable liquid/vapor phase transitions.