Linear stability of plane Couette flow of an upper convected Maxwell fluid (Q1086059)

We investigate the linear stability of plane Couette flow of an upper convected Maxwell fluid using a spectral method to compute the eigenvalues. No instabilities are found. This is in agreement with the results of T. C. Ho, M. M. Denn and K. C. Lee and B. A. Finlayson [e.g.: \textit{T. C. Ho} and \textit{M. M. Denn}, ibid. 3(1977/78), 179-195 (1978; Zbl 0434.76007)], but contradicts ''proofs'' of instability by V. A. Gorodtsov and A. I. Leonov and U. Akbay and G. Frischmann [e.g.: \textit{U. Akbay} and \textit{G. Frischmann}, Rheol. Acta 24, 450-459 (1985; Zbl 0576.76007)]. The errors in those arguments are pointed out. We also find that the numerical discretization can generate artificial instabilities. The qualitative behavior of the eigenvalue spectrum as well as the artificial instabilities is discussed.