Figure 5: Schematic solution of the shock
heating problem in spherical geometry. The initial state
consists of a spherically symmetric flow of
cold ( ) gas of unit rest
mass density having a highly
relativistic inflow velocity everywhere. A shock is generated at
the center of the sphere, which propagates upstream with constant speed. The
post-shock state is constant and at rest. The pre-shock
state, where the flow is self-similar, has a
density which varies as with time and radius .
|