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Write ${\varphi }^{\prime }=\Phi (z)e^{ik(x-ct)}$ and let $B_{\pm }$ be the displacement amplitudes at $z=\pm L$. Use subscripts $I$ for the jet interior and $O$ for the adjoining exterior. Each interface is a material vortex sheet, so its linearized kinematic boundary conditions areThe equal mass densities make the hydrostatic displacement terms cancel. The dynamic boundary condition for an inviscid interface therefore givesThe division form assumes $c\ne 0,V$; 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 $\Phi$ and ${\Phi }^{\prime }$, determine the equal-density top-hat planar-jet dispersion relation.

Take $k>0$; reflection in $x$ supplies the result for negative wavenumber. Since each region has uniform base velocity, the perturbation is an incompressible, irrotational flow with a velocity potential satisfying the Laplace equation. Its decaying outer forms areFor a varicose mode of a planar jet, reflection symmetry makes the inner potential proportional to $\cosh (ky)$; for a sinuous mode of a planar jet, it is proportional to $\sinh (ky)$.

At the upper interface, the linearized kinematic boundary condition isThe first equation gives ${\varphi }_{+}(h)=-\sigma \eta /k$. The second givesThe linearized Unsteady Bernoulli equation gives $p^{\prime }=-\rho ({\partial }_t+U{\partial }_x)\varphi$. Applying pressure continuity therefore produces the equal-density top-hat planar-jet dispersion relationSolving the quadratic equation givesEquivalently,The plus sign is the unstable Kelvin-Helmholtz instability branch. In particular, the two modes have exactly the same growth rate,Its limiting forms areThus neither type grows faster in this equal-density idealization, although their phase speeds differ. The unbounded large-$k$ growth is the familiar short-wave pathology of an inviscid vortex sheet.