Inviscid Couette continuous spectrum (${\omega }_{\xi }=\alpha \xi ,-1<\xi <1$)

For inviscid plane Couette flow $U=z$ between impermeable walls at $z=\pm 1$, the nonzero real streamwise wavenumber $\alpha$ gives no nontrivial smooth discrete vertical-velocity modes. Instead, the vorticity variable $q=(D^2-{\alpha }^2)w$ obeys $({\partial }_t+i\alpha z)q=0$. Localized vorticity sheets give generalized eigenfunctions with real frequencies ${\omega }_{\xi }=\alpha \xi$. Their closure forms a neutral continuous spectrum.

For constant shear $U=\lambda y$, the wall-normal Laplacian of velocity is advected with phase $e^{-i\alpha \lambda yt}$. Inverting $D^2-k^2$, $k^2={\alpha }^2+{\beta }^2$, with its Dirichlet Green function gives the displayed initial-value solution. Impermeable inviscid walls impose zero normal velocity, not zero tangential velocity or no-slip wall vorticity.

In unbounded Couette flow with velocity $(y,0)$, linear vorticity is transported exactly as $\omega (x,y,t)={\omega }_0(x-yt,y)$. For a nonzero streamwise Fourier mode $\alpha$ and sufficiently localized smooth initial data, inversion by the one-dimensional modified Helmholtz Green function gives the displayed pointwise decay of the streamfunction and velocity, although vorticity does not decay in magnitude. The mechanism is phase mixing: shearing produces increasingly rapid transverse oscillations, whose elliptic velocity reconstruction suppresses them. Smoothness and decay of the initial streamfunction without derivative control do not alone imply these algebraic rates.

Let $G_a$ be the Dirichlet Green function of $D^2-a^2$ on $[-1,1]$, with $a=|\alpha |$:It is continuous and has derivative jump one, so $(D^2-a^2)G_a=\delta (z-\xi )$. The Dirac delta multiplication identity gives $(z-\xi )\delta (z-\xi )=0$, proving it is a generalized eigenfunction of the inviscid Couette continuous spectrum. Integrating $G_a(z,\xi )q_0(\xi )e^{-i\alpha \xi t}$ reconstructs the evolving vertical velocity from its initial vorticity.