Magnetic buoyancy energy criterion

For the magnetized isothermal atmosphere, set $a=1/(2H)$, $s=v_s^2>0$, $b=v_a^2>0$ and $\Delta =i{k}_x{\xi }_x+i{k}_y{\xi }_y+(i{k}_z+a){\xi }_z$. After weighting the displacement by $e^{z/(2H)}$, the restoring Hermitian matrix $\mathsf{K}$ satisfiesThus $gH\le s$ makes the form nonnegative for every wavevector. If $gH>s$, choose $k_z=0$, $k_x\ne 0$, ${\xi }_z=1$, ${\xi }_x=-a/(i{k}_x)$ and ${\xi }_y=g/(si{k}_y)$. The squares vanish, and sufficiently small nonzero $k_y$ gives a negative form. The Rayleigh quotient proves instability when these wavelengths are admissible. Since $s=\gamma c_s^2$ and $\beta =2c_s^2/b$, the condition is precisely $\beta (\gamma -1)<1$.

For a horizontal field, set $C=B^2/{\mu }_0$. Static force balance gives $\delta \Pi =\rho g{\xi }_z-(\gamma p+C)\nabla \cdot \xi +Ci{k}_y{\xi }_y$. Given smooth compactly supported vertical and along-field displacements, the displayed choice makes total-pressure perturbation zero while ${\xi }_x=O(k_x^{-1})$. The nonnegative pressure and transverse-tension terms vanish as $|k_x|\to \infty$. This constructs the infimum needed for the magnetohydrodynamic energy principle; a strictly negative limit is already negative at some finite wavenumber.