The theory of motion of edges of dispersive shock waves generated after wave breaking of simple waves is developed. It is shown that this motion obeys Hamiltonian mechanics complemented by a Hopf-like equation for evolution of the background flow that interacts with edge wave packets or edge solitons. A conjecture about existence of a certain symmetry between equations for the small-amplitude and soliton edges is formulated. In case of localized simple wave pulses propagating through a quiescent medium this theory provided a new approach to derivation of an asymptotic formula for the number of solitons produced eventually from such a pulse.
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