Abstract
It is rigorously proved that the most critical small disturbances to a stratified viscous plane parallel shear flow between rigid horizontal boundaries must be either two‐dimensional (2‐D) transverse or longitudinal modes, and that there are no marginally stable flows for which truly 3‐D disturbances are marginally stable. This allows the linear stability analysis to be restricted to (two classes of ) 2‐D disturbances.

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