  We obtain an asymptotic expansion for the solution of the Cauchy problem for
the Korteweg-de Vries (KdV) equation in the small dispersion limit near the
point of gradient catastrophe (x_c,t_c) for the solution of the dispersionless
equation.
  The sub-leading term in this expansion is described by the smooth solution of
a fourth order ODE, which is a higher order analogue to the Painleve I
equation. This is in accordance with a conjecture of Dubrovin, suggesting that
this is a universal phenomenon for any Hamiltonian perturbation of a hyperbolic
equation. Using the Deift/Zhou steepest descent method applied on the
Riemann-Hilbert problem for the KdV equation, we are able to prove the
asymptotic expansion rigorously in a double scaling limit.
