  Two different mechanisms have been reported in previous ab initio studies to
describe basal slip in complex intermetallic Laves phases: synchroshear and
undulating slip. To date, no clear answer has been given on which is the
energetically favourable mechanism and whether either of them could effectively
propagate as a dislocation. Using classical atomistic simulations supported by
ab initio calculations, the present work removes the ambiguity and shows that
the two mechanisms are, in fact, identical. Furthermore, we establish
synchroshear as the mechanism for propagating dislocations within the basal
plane in Laves phases.
