 Solution

Substitution of a normal mode gives the dispersion relationFor real $k$, $\sigma$ is the temporal growth rate. Since $\beta \ne 0$, its supremum is finite exactly whenFor $\beta <0$, arbitrarily short wavelengths grow arbitrarily fast. For $\beta >0$, the finite maximum temporal growth rate isThe Briggs-Bers criterion starts the inverse temporal Laplace transform above all temporal singularities and then deforms its contour downward while following the spatial roots. A finite growth bound supplies such an initial contour and a causal, high-frequency-controlled Green function. Unbounded temporal growth prevents that standard construction.

For absolute wave-packet instability, a candidate spatial pinch point must satisfy $D=0$, $D_k=0$, and $\mathrm{Im}\omega >0$. HeregivesThus candidate growing saddles require $\gamma <0$ at $k_0$, or $\gamma <{\alpha }^2/(4\beta )$ at $k_{\pm }$. Together with $\beta >0$, existence of at least one such candidate requires $\gamma <{\alpha }^2/(4\beta )$.

A growing double root is not sufficient: the roots must pinch the spatial inversion contour from opposite sides. Collisions of branches originating in the same spatial half-plane do not obstruct the relevant deformation. This distinction is part of the Briggs-Bers criterion; it is stated, for example, in the primary study doi.org/10.1017/jfm.2016.195.

An explicit false spatial saddle in quartic dispersion is $\alpha =-2$, $\beta =1$, $\gamma =1/2$. Its candidates $k=\pm i$ have $\omega =i/2$, but all real modes have $\sigma =-k^4-2k^2-1/2<0$. Each imaginary collision joins two branches in the same half-plane; neither is a relevant pinch. For $\omega =i\Omega$, the spatial roots obey $k^2=-1\pm \sqrt{1/2-\Omega }$, making those same-half-plane collisions transparent as $\Omega \downarrow 1/2$.

For this particular real, even dispersion relation one can also establish the actual threshold directly. At the origin its impulse Green function isLaplace method selects the real maximum, and gives a positive prefactor times $t^{-1/2}{e}^{{\sigma }_{\max }t}$ because $\alpha \ne 0$. Therefore the actual absolute wave-packet instability condition isThese are sufficient for this model as well as necessary. They follow after identifying relevant real saddles; the earlier algebraic double-root test alone lacks the pinch information. Equality is marginal, not exponential absolute growth.