  Hydrodynamic equations are used to identify the final state reached by a
freely evolving granular gas above but close to its shear instability. The
theory predicts the formation of a two bands shear state with a steady density
profile. There is a modulation between temperature and density profiles as a
consequence of the energy balance, the density fluctuations remaining small,
without producing clustering. Moreover, the time dependence of the velocity
field can be scaled out with the squared root of the average temperature of the
system. The latter follows the Haff law, but with an effective cooling rate
that is smaller than that of the free homogeneous state. The theoretical
predictions are compared with numerical results for inelastic hard disks
obtained by using the direct Monte Carlo simulation method, and a good
agreement is obtained for low inelasticity.
