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