The inverse function theorem applied to makes smooth. Since , . Monotonicity of the characteristic flow map and the vanishing of outside imply
Thus the solution is a smooth function with compact support at each such time. The fact that some interior characteristic speeds differ from causes no difficulty: they cannot cross the two exterior characteristic curves before .
For and , define the characteristic curve by
The bounded derivative makes globally Lipschitz, uniformly in . On each finite time interval, , so Gronwall inequality prevents finite-time escape. The Picard-Lindelöf theorem therefore gives a unique trajectory for every finite . Differentiation in gives
so the characteristic flow map is a increasing diffeomorphism.
Along a characteristic, the chain rule changes the equation into
Tracing backward by the flow therefore gives
The regularity of the flow makes this a classical solution. Conversely, every classical solution obeys the same ordinary differential equation along every characteristic, so the formula also proves uniqueness.
With , pull the bounded measurable initial value back along the characteristic flow map:
The flow is measurable and invertible, so is measurable and . Choose smooth converging to in with uniformly bounded essential suprema, and define
Part a makes each a classical, hence weak, solution. On every compact subset of spacetime, the change-of-variables formula for the flow and its locally bounded Jacobian determinant give in . Passing to the limit in the weak identity by dominated convergence proves that is a bounded weak solution with initial datum .
The characteristic flow map solves the ordinary differential equation
and hence
Along this characteristic curve, the chain rule gives
The value is therefore constant, and tracing back to time zero gives the classical solution
Direct differentiation verifies both the linear transport equation and its initial value.
Solve the adjoint transport equation
backward with terminal value zero. Along the characteristic flow map , the required solution is
Differentiation under the integral verifies the equation. If has compact support in , then vanishes for and for , so as required.
When the initial datum is zero, inserting this into the weak formulation gives
for every . Thus almost everywhere. The difference of two bounded weak solutions has zero initial datum, so this proves uniqueness.
Phase-space flow Jacobian 2026-10-07
The Jacobian determinant of a differentiable characteristic flow map measures its change of volume. The variational equation and the Liouville formula for a fundamental matrix give the displayed formula for a complete smooth field . For kinetic advection with , its divergence is . A zero divergence preserves phase-space Lebesgue measure.
Variational equation Created 2026-10-07 Updated 2026-10-14
Differentiating a smooth characteristic flow map in its initial point gives this linear equation, with . The Liouville formula for a fundamental matrix then gives . Incompressible Hamiltonian flows preserve Lebesgue measure because this divergence vanishes.