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The absolute frequency is the generally complex angular frequency at the physically selected absolute wavenumber. Its imaginary part is the fixed-position exponential growth rate under the convention $e^{-i\omega t}$. Marginal zero exponential growth may still carry an algebraic prefactor.

The absolute growth rate is the exponential growth rate of a localized impulse at a fixed position in the chosen observation frame. Under the convention $e^{i(kx-\omega t)}$, it is the imaginary part of the physically selected absolute frequency. Positive values give absolute hydrodynamic instability; negative values can still coexist with convective hydrodynamic instability.

For orthogonal continuous local martingales $B,\vartheta$ that are standard Brownian motions, the real part $X=e^B\cos \vartheta$ and imaginary part $Y=e^B\sin \vartheta$ are continuous local martingales. The Itô formula gives $dX=XdB-Yd\vartheta$ and $dY=YdB+Xd\vartheta$, since the two diagonal second-order terms cancel. Their quadratic variations equal ${\int }_0^t{e}^{2B_s}ds$ and their quadratic covariation is zero. If $C=[B,\vartheta ]$ is nonzero, the omitted drift terms are respectively $-YdC$ and $XdC$, so the orthogonality hypothesis is essential.

A smooth inviscid stratified parallel flow with gradient Richardson number at least $1/4$ everywhere has no exponentially growing two-dimensional normal modes. Put $a=1/2$ in the power-transformed Taylor–Goldstein energy identity and take its imaginary part:The integral is positive for a nonzero mode when the numerator is nonnegative, forcing $c_i=0$. This is a modal stability theorem, not a prohibition on transient growth. Maslowe's review discusses the theorem and the role of critical layers.

For real $x,y$, the complex exponential function has $e^{x+iy}=e^x(\cos y+i\sin y)$. Since the trigonometric factor lies on the unit circle,Thus the real part of the exponent controls its modulus, while the imaginary part controls its direction on the complex plane.

Write the complex number as $z=x+iy$. Since $iz=-y+ix$, the modulus of the complex exponential givesThis equals one precisely when $y=0$. The quadratic formula shows that the imaginary part of either root is $\pm \sqrt{4-b^2}/2$. Consequently the roots are real exactly at the two endpoints:Both endpoints satisfy the condition. The repeated roots are respectively $1$ and $-1$; their multiples by $i$ have exponentials on the unit circle.

Write the system as ${\mathbf{x}}^{\prime }=M\mathbf{x}$, with $M=\left(\begin{array}{cc}2& 5\\ -1& -2\end{array}\right)$. Its characteristic polynomial is ${\lambda }^2+1$, so its eigenvalues are $i$ and $-i$. An eigenvector for $i$ is $v=(5,-2+i{)}^{\mathsf{T}}$. Thus $e^{it}v$ is a complex solution, and its real part and imaginary part give real solutions:Their initial vectors are $(5,-2{)}^{\mathsf{T}}$ and $(0,1{)}^{\mathsf{T}}$, with determinant $5\ne 0$. Consequently they are linearly independent and span the two-dimensional solution space.

The odd-potential branch uses $s=\tanh (kL)$, whereas the even-potential branch uses $1/s$. The imaginary parts are identical becauseConsequently the equality of top-hat jet parity growth rates givesHere $\gamma =k{c}_i$ is the positive temporal growth rate. The real phase velocities differ: $c_{r,\mathrm{odd}}=\frac{V}{2}(1-e^{-2kL})$ and $c_{r,\mathrm{even}}=\frac{V}{2}(1+e^{-2kL})$. Thus equal amplification does not imply equal propagation. As $kL\to \infty$, both approach the isolated-vortex sheet phase velocity $V/2$ and growth rate $k|V|/2$.

Let $D=\overline{U}-c$ and $F=\hat{w}/D^{1/2}$. For $c_i>0$, $D$ never vanishes, so an analytic branch of a square root exists along the real flow domain. Take real smooth velocity and buoyancy frequency coefficients, nonzero $k$ (chosen positive for the growing-wave convention), a nontrivial regular normal mode, and boundary decay strong enough to remove the integration-by-parts term.

Substitution into the Taylor–Goldstein equation gives the half-power case of the power-transformed Taylor–Goldstein energy identity:For completeness, differentiating $\hat{w}=D^{1/2}F$ yields ${\hat{w}}^{\prime \prime }=D^{1/2}{F}^{\prime \prime }+{\overline{U}}^{\prime }{D}^{-1/2}{F}^{\prime }+[\frac{1}{2}{\overline{U}}^{\prime \prime }{D}^{-1/2}-\frac{1}{4}({\overline{U}}^{\prime }{)}^2{D}^{-3/2}]F$, which explains the coefficient $1/4$.

Multiply by $F^{\ast }$ and integrate over $z$. The boundary term $[F^{\ast }D{F}^{\prime }]$ is zero for the given homogeneous endpoint conditions, or for sufficiently decaying finite-energy modes at infinity. ThereforeSince $\mathrm{Im}D=-c_i$, $\mathrm{Im}(1/D)=c_i/|D{|}^2$, and $S,{\overline{U}}^{\prime \prime }$ are real, taking the imaginary part and dividing by $-c_i$ givesThe first two terms have strictly positive integral for a nonzero mode. Thus $S$ cannot be nonnegative everywhere:This proves the Miles–Howard theorem in contrapositive form. Where ${\overline{U}}^{\prime }\ne 0$, the corresponding gradient Richardson number must fall below $1/4$ somewhere. Failure of this sufficient-stability criterion does not prove instability. The derivation uses $c_i>0$; it cannot be applied unchanged to a neutral singular critical layer.

Choose $a=1$. The power-transformed Taylor–Goldstein energy identity reduces toThe right side is real. For an unstable mode, $c_i>0$, so taking the imaginary part givesConsequently the phase velocity is a weighted average:The weights are nonnegative and not identically zero. For a nonconstant shear profile, equality at an extremum would force $q$ to vanish on an interval where $U$ differs from that extremum; uniqueness for the regular ordinary differential equation would then give the zero mode. This is the phase-speed bound for unstable stratified shear modes.

Choose $a=1/2$ in the power-transformed Taylor–Goldstein energy identity and let $Q=N^2-(U^{\prime }{)}^2/4$. The result isBecause $\mathrm{Im}V=-c_i$ and $\mathrm{Im}(1/V)=c_i/|V{|}^2$, its imaginary part givesIf $4N^2>(U^{\prime }{)}^2$ everywhere, the integral is strictly positive for every nonzero eigenfunction, so a mode with $c_i\ne 0$ is impossible. Thus the flow is neutrally stable to these inviscid normal modes. This is the Miles–Howard theorem, expressed as a lower bound $\mathrm{Ri}>1/4$ on the gradient Richardson number. It excludes exponential modal growth; it does not by itself exclude transient growth.

Boundedness of $(z_n)$ makes both real sequences $(x_n)$ and $(y_n)$ bounded. The Bolzano-Weierstrass theorem first gives a subsequence $(z_{n_j})$ for which $(x_{n_j})$ converges. Applying it again to $(y_{n_j})$ gives a subsubsequence for which the imaginary parts also converge. Since convergence of complex numbers is equivalent to convergence of their real parts and imaginary parts, this subsubsequence converges in $\mathbb{C}$.