The emergence of the Cauchy horizon from the crease for $3D$ compressible Euler flow

Abstract

We study open sets of nearly plane symmetric data for the $3D$ compressible Euler equations with dynamic entropy and non-trivial vorticity. In our prior work, we proved that the solutions develop a gradient singularity along a singular boundary, which is a hypersurface that emanates from a co-dimension 2, spacelike submanifold called the crease. In the present paper, we prove that a null hypersurface, called a Cauchy horizon, emanates from the crease, and propagates in a direction transverse to the singular boundary. The solution remains smooth up to the Cauchy horizon, even though it ``feels'' the influence of the gradient singularity at the crease. The union of the Cauchy horizon, the crease, and the singular boundary, make up a connected portion of the boundary of a maximal globally hyperbolic development (MGHD) of the data. Roughly, an MGHD is the ``largest'' way that smooth data can evolve into a classical solution. Known examples show that the only way one can guarantee uniqueness of an MGHD is by proving that certain structural properties hold along its entire boundary. We prove that a local version of the needed properties are satisfied along the Cauchy horizon and singular boundary. Our work provides the first description of the formation, structure, and stability of an $O(1)$-size portion of the Cauchy horizon in $3D$ without symmetry assumptions. The presence of dynamic entropy and vorticity stretching, both of which are absent in simpler settings such as $2D$ isentropic Euler, introduces significant difficulties that we resolve with novel techniques. Our approach relies on new foliations of spacetime dynamically adapted to the shape of the crease, and a PDE framework based on double-null foliations and the energy identities we derived in earlier work. Collectively, our techniques allow us to handle a challenging new solution regime where the crease lacks strict convexity.