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The elapsed time for a specific section of the track. Breaking the lap into sectors lets you pinpoint which parts of the circuit offer the most opportunity for improvement.
Segers' Analysis Techniques for Racecar Data Acquisition explains the theoretical best lap concept: combining the best sector times from different laps shows what you're capable of. But he warns about granularity: "The more track segments incorporated, the faster the ideal lap is. There must be an optimum number of segments that provide a realistic theoretical fastest lap. Sound judgment is necessary here, both in choosing the right number of segments and having confidence in this performance indicator." He illustrates with "a run in a Porsche 996 around Spa Francorchamps" showing how different segment counts produce different theoretical bests. The practical takeaway: 3-5 sectors per circuit is typical for HPDE analysis. More sectors give finer resolution but the theoretical best becomes increasingly unrealistic since sector transitions introduce dependencies.