Abstract
In this paper the classical Rayleigh centrifugal instability theory is extended to general inviscid two‐dimensional flows. Sufficient conditions for centrifugal instability are that the streamlines be convex closed curves in some region of the flow, with the magnitude of the circulation decreasing outward. If these conditions are satisfied, a class of three‐dimensional short‐wave instabilities can be constructed, which are localized near the streamline on which the exponent of a certain matrix Floquet problem is maximized.

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