Upper Bounds for the Complex Growth Rate of a Disturbance in Ferrothermohaline Convection

Abstract It is proved analytically that the complex growth rate σ= σr+iσi (σr and σi are the real and imaginary parts of σ, respectively) of an arbitrary oscillatory motion of neutral or growing amplitude in ferrothermohaline convection in a ferrofluid layer for the case of free boundaries is located inside a semicircle in the right half of the σrσi-plane, whose center is at the origin and radius = Rs[1−M1′(1−1M5)]Pr′, {\rm{radius}}\, = \,\sqrt {{{{R_s}\left[{1 - M_1^{'}\left({1 - {1 \over {{M_5}}}} \right)} \right]} \over {P_r^{'}}}}, where Rs is the concentration Rayleigh number, Pr′ is the solutal Prandtl number, M1′ is the ratio of magnetic flux due to concentration fluctuation to the gravitational force, and M5 is the ratio of concentration effect on magnetic field to pyromagnetic coefficient. Further, bounds for the case of rigid boundaries are also derived separately.