On Howard's conjecture in heterogeneous shear flow problem

Abstract

Howard's conjecture, which states that in the linear instability problem of inviscid heterogeneous parallel shear flow growth rate of an arbitrary unstable wave must approach zero as the wave length decreases to zero, is established in a mathematically rigorous fashion for plane parallel heterogeneous shear flows with negligible buoyancy force $g\beta \ll 1$ (Miles J W, {\it J. Fluid Mech.} {\bf 10} (1961) 496--508), where $\beta$ is the basic heterogeneity distribution function).