Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-differential-equations-and-applications-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2009/a/3/d/solution

Mass preservation of a nonnegative finite-mass profile requires . Balancing and requires . Therefore
The similarity ODE is
For a source-type profile adjoining vacuum, the integration constant is zero. The positive branch is for positive , terminated by a shock into zero. Normalize the mass:
Thus a unit-mass similarity solution is
At the moving right edge, equals , so the Rankine-Hugoniot condition is satisfied. The characteristic speeds satisfy , making it an entropy shock. The left edge meets vacuum continuously. As the mass concentrates at the origin; this is a source solution, not a claim that every finite-mass initial profile equals it at finite time.

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