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How can I use Mathematica to plot the flow of the following ODE in $\mathbb R$? $$\frac{d}{dt} X(t,x) = \chi_{\{x>0\}}(X(t,x)), t \in [0,T],$$ $X(0,x) = x, x \in \mathbb R$

where $\chi$ denotes the indicator function of a set.

I know about the command NDSolve, but is it applicable in this situation given the discontinuity in the source term? And I'd be mostly interested in rendering a nice picture of the flow.

Note that a related question was posed on MathOverflow.

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T = 1;
Y = ParametricNDSolveValue[{X'[t] == Boole[X[t] > 0], X[0] == x}, X, {t, 0, T}, {x}];
Show[
 Table[
  ParametricPlot[{Y[x][t], t}, {t, 0, T}],
  {x, -1, 1, 0.1}
  ],
 PlotRange -> All,
 AxesLabel -> {"x", "t"}
 ]

enter image description here

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  • $\begingroup$ Incidentally, this is why I like Iverson brackets more than indicator functions; I find the latter more confusing to parse in general, whereas the Boole[] expression is concise and clear. $\endgroup$
    – J. M.'s eventual burnout ♦
    Nov 29, 2019 at 22:08
  • $\begingroup$ Thank you very much. This looks very nice. It seems that there may be a nonuniqueness problem for trajectories starting at $x=0$. How does one identify in this picture the unique flow in the sense of DiPerna-Lions (php.math.unifi.it/users/cime/Courses/2005/02/…)? $\endgroup$
    – Riku
    Nov 30, 2019 at 12:37
  • $\begingroup$ No, there is no nonuniqueness problem in thi case: For initial condition x>0, the right branch is taken and the left one for z <= 0. $\endgroup$
    – Henrik Schumacher
    Nov 30, 2019 at 12:59

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