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Equation 36 · Part 1 · Every Crystal Has Its Own Speed of Light

Symbol c_eff

0.9 ceff0.9\,c_{\mathrm{eff}}
ceffc_{\mathrm{eff}}

What this part means

the including.

Its job in the formula

cec_eff is a part of this expression. Its role is fixed by the surrounding article and by the operations shown in the formula.

Where the article explains it

A crystal has a ground state and a lattice, and both pick out a rest frame: no continuous symmetry carries the crystal’s description in one inertial frame into its description in another, because the lattice Hamiltonian is manifestly not invariant under a boost at any speed, including ceffc_{\mathrm{eff}} .

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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