For a fixed allowed band/subband pair, parabolic dispersions give . If the photon energy exceeds the edge, the contour is a circle of radius and the gradient magnitude is . ThusBelow threshold the contour is absent. With the conventional normalization, the two-dimensional joint density of states per area and independent channel isWith a locally energy-independent optical matrix element, each allowed pair therefore adds a constant step to the continuum dielectric function in the approximation of the supplied equation. Different hole families need not have equal step heights: reduced masses, spin multiplicities and Bloch-state matrix elements differ. Frequency-dependent overall optical prefactors, nonparabolicity, broadening and excitonic Coulomb enhancement can modify the literal step shape outside this approximation.