Instability of the Hocking-Stewartson pulse and its implications for three-dimensional Poiseuille flow

The linear stability problem for the Rocking-Stewartson pulse, obtained by linearizing the complex Ginzburg-Landau (cGL) equation, is formulated in terms of the Evans function, a complex analytic function whose zeros correspond to stability exponents. A numerical algorithm based on the compound matrix method is developed for computing the Evans function. Using values in the cGL equation associated with spanwise modulation of plane Poiseuille flow, we show that the Hocking-Stewartson pulse associated with points along the neutral curve is always linearly unstable due to a real positive eigenvalue. Implications for the spanwise structure of nonlinear Poiseuille problem between parallel plates are also discussed.