Characteristic boundary layers in the vanishing viscosity limit for the Hunter-Saxton equation

The Hunter-Saxton equation models the propagation of weakly nonlinear orientation waves in a massive director field of the nematic liquid crystal. In this paper, we study the vanishing viscosity limit for an initial boundary value problem of the Hunter-Saxton equation with the characteristic boundary condition. By the formal multiscale analysis, we first derive the characteristic boundary layer profile, which satisfies a nonlinear parabolic equation. On the base of the Galerkin method along with a compactness argument, we then establish the global well-posedness of the boundary layer equation. Finally, we prove the global stability of the boundary layer profiles together with the optimal convergence rate of the vanishing viscosity limit by the energy method.