For , the squared dimensionless growth rates are . Exponential growth begins for . Since the gravitating lattice Fourier kernel is largest at , the full infinite lattice is exponentially unstable when . Marginal repeated imaginary roots and zero-frequency secular modes require separate treatment.
Set . For the discrete Fourier mode, the displacement difference in the th neighbor pair carries , and
Thus the infinite system reduces to
The gravitating lattice Fourier kernel is nonnegative, even and -periodic, with . The uniform convergence and absolute convergence of its differentiated series gives
To prove the maximum, it is not sufficient to maximize each cosine term separately: the even terms do not reach their individual maxima at . Instead use the convergent integral representation . Summing the geometric series for sines gives
For , the denominator is positive and , so . For , . The interchange is justified by . Hence
Their value is
where is the Riemann zeta function. This maximizing Fourier mode alternates the signs of neighboring particle displacements.