Steady fold of a thermosolutal Lorenz model ($r_{\min }=(\sqrt{r_s\tau }+\sqrt{1-{\tau }^2}{)}^2$)

A nonzero steady Lorenz model of thermosolutal convection branch obeys $r(x)=(1+x)+r_s\tau (1+x)/({\tau }^2+x)$, with $x=a^2$. For $0<\tau <1$, it has an interior saddle-node bifurcation precisely when $r_s>{\tau }^3/(1-{\tau }^2)$. Differentiating gives $x_{\ast }=-{\tau }^2+\sqrt{r_s\tau (1-{\tau }^2)}$ and the stated minimum. The weaker-versus-stronger threshold distinction matters: a sufficient bound need not be the sharp subcriticality condition. Steady-branch existence alone does not decide oscillatory stability.