Vertical slowness sextic of an anisotropic solid ($\det [T{q}^2+(R+R^{\mathsf{T}})q+Q-\rho I]=0$)

Fix horizontal slowness $p_{\alpha }$ and define $T_{ip}=c_{i3p3}$, $R_{ip}=c_{i3p\alpha }{p}_{\alpha }$ and $Q_{ip}=c_{i\alpha p\beta }{p}_{\alpha }{p}_{\beta }$. Under strong ellipticity in elasticity, $T$ is positive definite, so the vertical-slowness determinant has degree six with real coefficients. Real roots are intersections of a vertical line with the elastic slowness surface; complex-conjugate pairs give evanescent waves.