Effective mass (solid-state physics) from both sides gives where is the th element of , is the th element of , and are the th and th elements of , respectively, and is the total energy of the particle according to the Planck–Einstein relation. The index is contracted by the use of Einstein notation (there is an implicit summation over ). Since Newton's second law uses the inertial mass (not the gravitational mass), we can identify the inverse of this mass in the equation above as the tensor This tensor expresses the change in group velocity due to a change in crystal momentum. Its
Mass driver velocity would rather be around 62.75% of total mission delta v if operating at constant specific impulse, except greater optimization could come from varying exhaust velocity during the mission profile (as possible with some thruster types, including mass drivers and variable specific impulse magnetoplasma rockets). Since a mass driver could use any type of mass for reaction mass to move the spacecraft, a mass driver or some variation seems ideal for deep-space vehicles that scavenge reaction mass from found resources. One possible drawback of the mass driver is that it has the potential to send solid reaction mass travelling at