Abstract: We consider the initial value problem for degenerate viscous and inviscid scalar conservation laws where the flux function depends on the spatial location through a ``rough'' coefficient function $k(x)$. We show that the Engquist-Osher (and hence all monotone) finite difference approximations converge to the unique entropy solution of the governing equation if, among other demands, $k'$ is in $BV$, thereby providing alternative (new) existence proofs for entropy solutions of degenerate convection-diffusion equations as well as new convergence results for their finite difference approximations. In the inviscid case, we also provide a rate of convergence. Our convergence proofs are based on deriving a series of a priori estimates and using a general $L^p$ compactness criterion.
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