Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-year-1-of-the-natural-sciences-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2008/paper-2/14/a/solution

Put and . For , differentiation gives and therefore . The Korteweg-De Vries equation reduces to
Since is nonconstant, both coefficients must vanish. Thus the nonzero solitary wave is
There is also the trivial solution , for which has no effect. The negative amplitude follows from the minus sign of the nonlinear term; it agrees with the sech-squared solitary wave of the KdV equation.
Figure 1.
A negative solitary wave translates to the right without changing its profile
. Details.

New to topics? Read the docs here!