Two deep layers of incompressible flow with upper mass density , lower mass density , and tangential velocities have this dispersion relation when surface tension is absent. Decaying velocity potentials and the linearized kinematic boundary condition determine their amplitudes; the dynamic boundary condition for an inviscid interface gives the displayed relation. For the squared departure of the phase velocity from the density-weighted mean velocity is . A negative value gives Kelvin-Helmholtz instability despite stable density stratification.
The free surface is a material surface, so its kinematic boundary condition is
With constant atmospheric pressure and no surface tension, the dynamic boundary condition for an inviscid interface follows from Unsteady Bernoulli equation:
Write , where and are small. Choose the time-dependent potential gauge so the undisturbed right-hand side is . Retaining first-order terms, evaluated at , gives
The incompressibility condition also gives Laplace's equation for .
Set . Substitution of the specified normal mode into the two linearized boundary conditions yields and . Eliminating gives the dispersion relation
The decay factor in a fluid extending to uses . With signed wavenumber the decaying factor is and the right-hand side is . The frequency shift is the advection of a deep-water gravity wave by the uniform current.
Let . The interface is a material surface for both fluids: its material derivative vanishes on . With and , this gives
Thus the kinematic boundary condition says that particles stay on the moving interface. The tangential velocities can differ; each side has its own material derivative. Replacing both derivatives by one background speed would be incorrect.
The dynamic boundary condition for an inviscid interface is pressure continuity, because the fluids have no viscous normal stress and there is no surface tension. The unsteady Bernoulli equation in each layer of irrotational flow reads
Equating these pressures at gives the required dynamic boundary condition for an inviscid interface. Choose the potential gauges so that , or set both constants to zero relative to a common reference pressure. For example, removes the distinct uniform-stream Bernoulli constants without changing either velocity. Material-interface kinematics and pressure continuity supply the two matching conditions, with the Bernoulli gauge understood.
Write and let be the displacement amplitudes at . Use subscripts for the jet interior and for the adjoining exterior. Each interface is a material vortex sheet, so its linearized kinematic boundary conditions are
The equal mass densities make the hydrostatic displacement terms cancel. The dynamic boundary condition for an inviscid interface therefore gives
The division form assumes ; the preceding undivided equations remain the proper conditions in those exceptional cases. Potentials themselves need not be continuous, and their vertical derivatives need not be equal: the same material displacement is advected by different tangential base velocities. At infinity the exterior potentials decay. These displacement and pressure conditions, rather than continuity of and , determine the equal-density top-hat planar-jet dispersion relation.
The interface is material: fluid particles on remain there. Its material derivative therefore vanishes, giving on the interface. Since , this is the kinematic boundary condition for a free-surface graph on each side. The material derivatives use the respective tangential fluid velocities; they enforce the same moving normal boundary.
The Unsteady Bernoulli equation gives . Absorb the spatially constant functions into the gauges of the velocity potentials. Evaluating at and subtracting the equations yields the stated dynamic boundary condition for an inviscid interface. Surface tension supplies the pressure jump, rather than pressure continuity. Thus the first condition enforces material motion, and the second enforces the Bernoulli pressure balance.
Write the velocity potentials in the upper, middle and lower domains as , and . Irrotational flow and incompressible flow imply the Laplace equation
The far-field boundary conditions are
Every shear layer is a material interface. The exact kinematic boundary condition at is
and at it is
Here each equation is evaluated on the indicated moving interface.
Finally, pressure continuity is the dynamic boundary condition for an inviscid interface. The Unsteady Bernoulli equation gives
after absorbing spatially constant functions of time into the potentials.