Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2019 / ii / Paper 1 / 39A / b / i

The undisturbed gas has $u=0$, $c=c_0$, and hence $R_{-}=0$. The disturbance from the receding piston is a right-moving simple wave, so this invariant remains zero throughout it:

Let $s$ be the time at which the relevant $C_{+}$ characteristic leaves the piston. The boundary condition is $u={\dot{X}}_p(s)$ there. Both $u$ and $c$ are constant along this characteristic, whose speed isHence $s=s(x,t)$ is determined implicitly by the receding-piston rarefaction wave equationWithin $X_p(t)<x<c_{0}t$, the solution is thereforeFor $x\ge c_{0}t$, the gas remains undisturbed: $u=0$ and $\rho ={\rho }_0$. The speed bound keeps $c$ and $\rho$ positive, and monotonic increase of $|{\dot{X}}_p|$ makes this an expanding rarefaction wave rather than a characteristic-crossing compression.