We consider nonlinear hyperbolic conservation laws, posed on a differential (n+1)-manifold with boundary referred to as a spacetime, and in which the flux is defined as a flux field of n-forms depending on a parameter (the unknown variable). We intro
duce a formulation of the initial and boundary value problem which is geometric in nature and is more natural than the vector field approach recently developed for Riemannian manifolds. Our main assumption on the manifold and the flux field is a global hyperbolicity condition, which provides a global time-orientation as is standard in Lorentzian geometry and general relativity. Assuming that the manifold admits a foliation by compact slices, we establish the existence of a semi-group of entropy solutions. Moreover, given any two hypersurfaces with one lying in the future of the other, we establish a contraction property which compares two entropy solutions, in a (geometrically natural) distance equivalent to the L1 distance. To carry out the proofs, we rely on a new version of the finite volume method, which only requires the knowledge of the given n-volume form structure on the (n+1)-manifold and involves the {sl total flux} across faces of the elements of the triangulations, only, rather than the product of a numerical flux times the measure of that face.
We introduce a formulation of the initial and boundary value problem for nonlinear hyperbolic conservation laws posed on a differential manifold endowed with a volume form, possibly with a boundary; in particular, this includes the important case of
Lorentzian manifolds. Only limited regularity is assumed on the geometry of the manifold. For this problem, we establish the existence and uniqueness of an L1 semi-group of weak solutions satisfying suitable entropy and boundary conditions.
