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Equation 44 · Part 4 · Every Crystal Has Its Own Speed of Light

subscript

ceff−vdc_{\mathrm{eff}} - v_d
subscript

What this part means

The lower label selects a particular version, component, or indexed member of the quantity. For example, x₀ and xₜ can be values at different positions.

Its job in the formula

A subscript distinguishes a version, component, step, or member of a quantity. It does not automatically mean multiplication.

The passage around this formula

The magnitude is the first surprise. In a driven or flowing lattice, the cone speed along the drift is ceffc_{\mathrm{eff}} + vdv_d in one direction and ceffc_{\mathrm{eff}} - vdv_d in the other, so the anisotropy between the along-drift and transverse directions is δ\delta c/c ≃\simeq vdv_d/ceffc_{\mathrm{eff}} — first order in the drift velocity, not the crushing second-order v2v^2/c2c^2 ∼\sim 10^{-8} that made the 1887 experiment so demanding to run and so easy to see nothing in. At a tenth of the cone speed, the anisotropy is ten percent — a signal any competent interferometer would catch on its first pass, the mirror image of the historical null result. Such anisotropies are not a fiction of the model:…

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Learn the underlying idea

A subscript is a label attached below a symbol. It often selects a time step, component, category, or member of a sequence.

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Sources cited in the surrounding passage

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