Isobaric conductive cooling in mass coordinates ($T_{\tau }+\Lambda (T)/T-{\lambda }_0{\partial }_m(T^{\alpha -1}{T}_m)=0$)

With fixed pressure $p$, let $A=\mu p/\mathcal{R}$, so $\rho =A/T$. A material mass coordinate has ${\partial }_x=\rho {\partial }_m$ and the material time derivative becomes ${\partial }_t{|}_m$. The energy and continuity equations then give the displayed equation with $\tau =Ct$ and $C=(\gamma -1)(\mu /\mathcal{R}{)}^{2}p/\gamma$. A mass integral from a fixed origin is material only when the mass flux there vanishes; otherwise subtract its time-integrated flux to label parcels. Uniform pressure is a low-Mach approximation when sound crossing is faster than thermal evolution.

For conductivity $\lambda ={\lambda }_{0}T$, no cooling in the hot phase and a zero-temperature boundary at $m=0$, the mass-coordinate equation is linear diffusion. Its similarity profile solves $f^{\prime \prime }+\xi f^{\prime }/2=0$, $f(0)=0$, $f(\infty )=1$, giving the displayed error function. The thermal layer broadens as the square root of time. Conducted energy enters the cold radiating reservoir at rate per area $L={\lambda }_{0}A{T}_m(0)=A{T}_0\sqrt{{\lambda }_0}/\sqrt{\pi \tau }$, hence $L\propto t^{-1/2}$.