Spatiotemporal wave-packet stability

The response to a localized perturbation must be followed in space as well as time. Growth at a fixed position is absolute wave-packet instability; growth transported away while the original position decays is convective wave-packet instability. The Briggs-Bers criterion evaluates the relevant complex spatial branches of a dispersion relation, while a real-wavenumber temporal mode test alone does not generally distinguish those behaviors.

A criterion for absolute wave-packet instability based on analytic continuation of the spatial roots of a dispersion relation. Start the temporal inversion contour above the spectrum, then lower it while deforming the spatial contour. A spatial pinch point occurs when branches originating in opposite spatial half-planes obstruct that deformation. A double root $D=D_k=0$ is only an algebraic candidate. The opposite-half-plane condition is stated in the primary study doi.org/10.1017/jfm.2016.195, section 4.2.

A collision of spatial branches which pinches the spatial inversion contour as the temporal contour is lowered from above all singularities. The branches must originate on opposite sides of the spatial contour. A collision of two upper-half-plane branches or two lower-half-plane branches can solve the double-root equations without causing absolute wave-packet instability.

The real dispersion above is temporally stable for every real $k$, but its analytic continuation has stationary points at $k=\pm i$ with $\omega =i/2$. Writing $\omega =i\Omega$ gives $k^2=-1\pm \sqrt{1/2-\Omega }$; as $\Omega$ decreases to $1/2$, both branches at $+i$ approach from the upper half-plane and both at $-i$ from the lower. These are not spatial pinch points. This provides a concrete counterexample to treating growing algebraic double roots as sufficient for absolute wave-packet instability.

A localized disturbance grows along some moving rays but decays at its original fixed location. This wave-packet meaning differs from buoyancy-driven stellar convection and is therefore given a distinct canonical title. Changing the observation frame can change the absolute/convective classification. The Briggs-Bers criterion uses the laboratory-frame impulse response to distinguish this case from absolute wave-packet instability.

A localized perturbation has positive asymptotic exponential growth at a fixed observation point in the chosen reference frame. The relevant spatial pinch point of the Briggs-Bers criterion has positive imaginary frequency. Merely finding a growing temporal mode or a formal complex saddle is not sufficient; the saddle must contribute to the localized impulse response.

With normal modes $e^{ikx-i\omega t}$, a finite upper bound on $\mathrm{Im}\omega$ allows the inverse temporal Laplace transform contour to start above all temporal singularities. An unbounded growth rate at high real wavenumber prevents the standard causal Green function construction used in the Briggs-Bers criterion. For $\mathrm{Im}\omega =\alpha k^2-\beta k^4-\gamma$ with nonzero real $\beta$, the bound holds exactly when $\beta >0$.