Interaction of three and four rarefaction waves of the pressure-gradient system

We study the two-dimensional pressure-gradient system, a subsystem of the two-dimensional compressible Euler system. We consider the problem of interaction of four rarefaction waves which is one case of two-dimensional Riemann problems. It is known that, when two planar waves interact, there exists a smooth solution in the interaction region. In this paper, we establish the existence of a smooth solution in the hyperbolic domain of determinacy, in which we encounter the interaction of simple and planar waves and shock prevention in simple waves.