The stability of a two-dimensional laminar jet

This paper deals with the stability of a two-dimensional laminar jet against the infinitesimal antisymmetric disturbance. The curve of the neutral stability in the (α, R)-plane (α, the wave-number; R, Reynolds number) is calculated using two different methods for the different parts of the curve; the solution is developed in powers of (αR)⁻¹ for obtaining the upper branch of the curve and in powers of αR for the lower branch.The asymptotic behaviour of these branches is that for branch I,$\alpha \rightarrow 2, \;\; c \rightarrow \frac{2}{3}$ for $R \rightarrow \infty$; and for branch II, $R \sim 1\cdot12\alpha^{-1|2},\; c \sim 1\cdot 20 \alpha^2$ for α → 0. Some discussion is given on the validity of the basic assumption of the stability theory in relation to the numerical result obtained here.