Modified Burgers equation with cubic flux ($q_Z-q^2{q}_{\theta }=ϵq_{\theta \theta }$)

The cubic-flux variant replaces the quadratic conservative flux of Burgers' equation by $-q^3/3$. Its inviscid characteristic speed is $-q^2$, while positive diffusivity regularizes shock waves. It is not linearized by the usual Cole-Hopf transformation.

For a front written in $s=Z+c\theta$ connecting $0$ at $s=-\infty$ to nonzero $\beta$ at $s=+\infty$, one integration gives $ϵc^2{q}^{\prime }=q-c{q}^3/3$. The endpoint condition fixes $c=3/{\beta }^2$. Setting $w=q^2$ gives a logistic equation and the displayed profile, with the sign of $q$ selected by $\beta$. The propagation speed in the $\theta$ coordinate is $-{\beta }^2/3$, agreeing with the Rankine-Hugoniot condition for flux $-q^3/3$.