In this paper, we consider the Cauchy problem for pressureless gases in two
space dimensions with generic smooth initial data (density and velocity). These
equations give rise to singular curves, where the mass has positive density
w.r.t.~1-dimensional Hausdorff measure. We observe that the system of equations
describing these singular curves is not hyperbolic. For analytic data, local
solutions are constructed using a version of the Cauchy-Kovalevskaya theorem.
We then study the interaction of two singular curves, in generic position.
Finally, for a generic initial velocity field, we investigate the asymptotic
structure of the smooth solution up to the first time when a singularity is
formed.Comment: The manuscript contains 4 figure