---
abstract: 'We show uniqueness and stability in $L^2$ and for all time for piecewise-smooth solutions to hyperbolic balance laws. We have in mind applications to gas dynamics, the isentropic Euler system and the full Euler system for a polytropic gas in particular. We assume the discontinuity in the piecewise smooth solution is an extremal shock. We use only mild hypotheses on the system. Our techniques and result hold without smallness assumptions on the solutions. We can handle shocks of any size. We work in the class of bounded, measurable solutions satisfying a single entropy condition. We also assume a strong trace condition on the solutions, but this is weaker than $BV_{\text{loc}}$. We use the theory of a-contraction (see Kang and Vasseur \[[*Arch. Ration. Mech. Anal.*]{}, 222(1):343–391, 2016\]) developed for the stability of pure shocks in the case without source.'
address: |
    Department of Mathematics\
    The University of Texas at Austin\
    Austin, TX 78712\
    USA
author:
- 'Sam G. Krupa'
bibliography:
- 'references.bib'
date: 'April 20th, 2019'
title: 'Criteria for the a-contraction and stability for the piecewise-smooth solutions to hyperbolic balance laws'
---

Introduction
============

We consider an $n\times n$ system of balance laws, $$\begin{aligned}
\label{system}
\begin{cases}
\partial_t u + 