The figure 0.871 appears in the burner's lineage as a directed-particle fraction. It is a ceiling computed with no synchrotron radiation, reproducing to six significant figures from its own definition — but it is not the design's directed fraction, and the converter is not specified against it.
The prior mirror evaluator had no synchrotron term in either the electron balance or the ledger, so its 0.871 directed fraction was a zero-radiation ceiling. Charging synchrotron at the reference point brings the real directed fraction to 0.648. The ceiling is mathematically exact but physically unreachable.
Specifying a converter against a ceiling would oversize the harvest and overstate the plant output. Keeping 0.871 labeled as a ceiling — and designing against 0.648 — is the difference between a brochure and a buildable specification.
| Ceiling value | 0.871 (zero-synchrotron) |
| Design value | 0.648 (synchrotron charged) |
| Ceiling reproducibility | 6 significant figures |
| Converter spec basis | 0.648 |
| Status of 0.871 | ceiling, labeled |