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A localized perturbation has positive asymptotic exponential growth at a fixed observation point in the chosen reference frame. The relevant spatial pinch point of the Briggs-Bers criterion has positive imaginary frequency. Merely finding a growing temporal mode or a formal complex saddle is not sufficient; the saddle must contribute to the localized impulse response.

A localized disturbance grows along some moving rays but decays at its original fixed location. This wave-packet meaning differs from buoyancy-driven stellar convection and is therefore given a distinct canonical title. Changing the observation frame can change the absolute/convective classification. The Briggs-Bers criterion uses the laboratory-frame impulse response to distinguish this case from absolute wave-packet instability.

With normal modes $e^{ikx-i\omega t}$, a finite upper bound on $\mathrm{Im}\omega$ allows the inverse temporal Laplace transform contour to start above all temporal singularities. An unbounded growth rate at high real wavenumber prevents the standard causal Green function construction used in the Briggs-Bers criterion. For $\mathrm{Im}\omega =\alpha k^2-\beta k^4-\gamma$ with nonzero real $\beta$, the bound holds exactly when $\beta >0$.

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.

The response to a localized perturbation must be followed in space as well as time. Growth at a fixed position is absolute wave-packet instability; growth transported away while the original position decays is convective wave-packet instability. The Briggs-Bers criterion evaluates the relevant complex spatial branches of a dispersion relation, while a real-wavenumber temporal mode test alone does not generally distinguish those behaviors.