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Equation 34 · Part 2 · Every Crystal Has Its Own Speed of Light

Symbol v^2

γ=(1−v2/ceff2)−1/2\gamma = (1 - v^2/c_{\mathrm{eff}}^2)^{-1/2}
v2v^2

What this part means

The square of v: multiply v by itself.

Its job in the formula

v2v^2 is one of the signed contributions combined to compute the quantity on the left.

The passage around this formula

A fourth fact transfers, but only with a correction the paper computes rather than sets aside. A quasiparticle wavepacket moving at speed v inside the linear window carries an internal clock — a spinor phase, a zitterbewegung oscillation — that runs slow by the familiar factor γ\gamma = (1 - v2v^2/ceff2c_{\mathrm{eff}}^2)^{-1/2} : 1.15 at v = 0.5\,ceffc_{\mathrm{eff}} , 2.29 at 0.9\,ceffc_{\mathrm{eff}} . That dilation is real and, in principle, measurable, but only inside a window whose edge the band’s own curvature sets. Writing the correction as a term proportional to (k/Λcurv\Lambda_{\mathrm{curv}})^2 , the fractional error in γ\gamma stays under one percent as long as the wavepacket’s momentum sits below…

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Learn the underlying idea

An exponent tells how a base is used in multiplication. In x³, x is the base and 3 is the exponent: x³ = x × x × x.

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See this notation across published equations →

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