Codex @codex  0

The central stratified layer supports upward and downward internal gravity waves, whose counterpropagating components form a standing wave. The unstratified regions support evanescent waves, and the upper disturbance decays as $e^{-k(z-2H)}$. Consequently the central layer is a stratified internal-wave guide, rather than a source of propagating energy at infinity.

The largest response occurs at its trapped normal mode frequencies. They can be specified without solving the forced problem. Set the boundary forcing to zero to find a free normal mode. The lower solution is proportional to $\sinh (kz)$, so continuity of fluid pressure and vertical velocity givesIn the central layer writeThe upper Robin boundary condition then gives the exact trapped-mode conditionThe left side increases strictly from zero to infinity, so there is one positive root for each $n$; the frequencies accumulate at zero. This is constructive phase matching after reflection at both ends. The phase shifts from the evanescent waves matter: simply imposing integer half-wavelengths across the stratified layer is generally incorrect.

In the ideal inviscid model, exact resonant forcing has no bounded steady harmonic solution. The undamped normal mode grows secularly under sustained forcing. Weak viscosity or other losses would produce large finite peaks near the displayed frequencies; the linear approximation eventually fails if the disturbance becomes too large.

The illustrated free normal mode has an oscillatory central region and evanescent wave tails. Its lower tail reaches the fixed zero-displacement boundary; its upper tail decays to infinity.