Strong-shock Rankine-Hugoniot conditions

When the upstream pressure is negligible, a perfect-gas shock has density ratio $(\gamma +1)/(\gamma -1)$. For $\gamma =5/3$, the downstream density is four times the upstream density.

A strong, nonradiative shock in a monatomic ideal gas gives $p_{\mathrm{d}}=3{\rho }_{\mathrm{u}}{v}_{\mathrm{u}}^2/4$ and ${\rho }_{\mathrm{d}}=4{\rho }_{\mathrm{u}}$. The ideal gas law therefore gives the temperature in the title, with $\mu$ the mean particle mass. If the upstream speed is a Newtonian free-fall speed, $k_{\mathrm{B}}{T}_{\mathrm{d}}=3\mu GM/(8R)$. Mass alone does not determine this temperature without a radius and composition; electron-ion disequilibrium and radiation can also make the emergent spectrum differ from the ideal gas temperature.

In the rest frame of a strong planar shock wave, a perfect gas has ${\rho }_2/{\rho }_1=(\gamma +1)/(\gamma -1)$, $u_2/u_1=(\gamma -1)/(\gamma +1)$ and $p_2=2{\rho }_1{u}_1^2/(\gamma +1)$. Its downstream specific internal energy is ${ϵ}_2=p_2/[(\gamma -1){\rho }_2]=2u_1^2/(\gamma +1{)}^2$. Multiplying by mass flux $j={\rho }_1{u}_1$ gives the internal-energy flux in the title. The lost bulk kinetic energy flux instead equals $j(u_1^2-u_2^2)/2=\gamma F_{\mathrm{int}}$: this includes downstream pressure work and is the increase of specific enthalpy flux in the cold-upstream limit. Neither quantity is a temperature change per unit time of a fixed target mass without further information about that target.

The shock compression ratio is the downstream-to-upstream density ratio. For a strong perfect-gas shock,In the upstream rest frame, the downstream velocity is $2V_s/(\gamma +1)$ and its pressure is $2{\rho }_0{V}_s^2/(\gamma +1)$.

A plane shock moving at speed $V_s$ through initially stationary gas has upstream speed $u_1=V_s$ and downstream speed $u_2=V_s/\chi$ in the shock frame, where $\chi$ is the shock compression ratio. Transforming back to the initial slab frame gives $v_2=V_s-u_2$. At the breakout time $L/V_s$, a uniform downstream slab has thickness $L-v_{2}L/V_s=L/\chi$. The strong monatomic limit has $\chi =4$, hence $L_2=L/4$ and $v_2=3V_s/4$. This uses a maintained planar post-shock state; boundary rarefactions and variations of shock speed can change the actual thickness of a freely evolving finite cloud.

For a strong monatomic shock, the planar shock compression of a finite slab gives bulk speed $3V_s/4$ and kinetic energy $E_{\mathrm{bulk}}=9M_c{V}_s^2/32$. The initial internal energy is $E_{\mathrm{th}}=3M_{c}p/(2\rho )$. A bulk-ballistic escape estimate $E_{\mathrm{bulk}}\gtrsim W$ uses positive binding-energy magnitude $W$, not negative gravitational potential energy. With adiabatic sound speed $c_{\mathrm{ad}}^2=5p/(3\rho )$ it yields the first displayed coefficient. Using the isothermal sound speed $c_T^2=p/\rho$ instead yields $16/3\simeq 5.3$. The definitions obey ${\mathcal{M}}_T^2=(5/3){\mathcal{M}}_{\mathrm{ad}}^2$. Heating, subsequent expansion and energy loss can alter the physical escape threshold, so the coefficient is not independent of the energy budget and Mach convention.