 Solution

The crystal has periodic potential $V(x+a)=V(x)$. By Bloch's theorem, an energy eigenstate may be chosen asExpand the periodic factor in a Fourier series:Multiplication by $e^{ikx}$ gives the stated plane-wave expansion. Here $x$ is position, $a$ is the primitive unit cell length, $G_1$ is the primitive reciprocal lattice wavenumber, $n$ runs over every integer, and $C_{k,n}$ are complex numbers specifying the component wave amplitudes. The wavevector $k$ labels the Bloch state modulo $G_1$; $\hslash k$ is its crystal momentum, rather than generally its measured free-space momentum.

The component $e^{i(k+n{G}_1)x}$ is a plane wave of wavevector $k+n{G}_1$. All these components acquire the same phase factor $e^{ika}$ under $x\mapsto x+a$, since $e^{in{G}_{1}a}=1$. Their mixing therefore respects the crystal's translation symmetry. The coefficients and energy eigenvalue follow from the Schrödinger equation; the expression is not a claim that the coefficients are equal or that only finitely many are nonzero. The energy band index is suppressed in the notation, so different energy bands at a common $k$ generally have different coefficient sets.