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.