On weakly nonlinear waves in media exhibiting mixed nonlinearity

We obtain the transport equations governing small amplitude high frequency disturbances, that include both quadratic and cubic nonlinearities inherent in hyperbolic systems of conservation laws. The coefficients of the nonlinear terms in the transport equation are obtained in terms of the Glimm interaction coefficients. For symmetric and isotropic systems the mean curvature of the wave front, which appears as the coefficient of the linear term in the transport equation, is shown to be related to the derivative of the ray tube area along the bicharacteristics; the amplitude of the disturbance is shown to become unbounded in the neighborhood of the point where the ray tube collapses. We also obtain a formula, akin to the one obtained by R. Rosales (1991), for the energy dissipated across shocks.  2003 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved