Passing by reference to comparator function (C++11)

I am trying to speed up my code (minimal, reproducible example below) and I was told that passing by reference would be a more efficient method for my comparator function. That was the first time I heard of the phrase, so I looked it up and found some websites with examples, but I don't understand when and how to use it. How would I use it in this case?

#include <array>
#include <iostream>
#include <algorithm>
#include <fstream>
#include <ctime>
#include <random>

using namespace std;

class arrMember {
public:
    int var;
    arrMember(int var) :
        var(var) {}
    arrMember() {};
};

array<int, 1000000> arraySource;

array<arrMember, 1000000> arrayObjects;

bool compare(arrMember(x), arrMember(y)) {
    return (x.var < y.var);
}

void arrayPrint() {
    ofstream output("arrayPrint.txt");
    for (int k = 0; k != arrayObjects.size(); k++) {
        output << arrayObjects[k].var << endl;
    }

    output.close();
}

void sort() {
    int j = 0;
    for (auto i = arraySource.begin(); i != arraySource.end(); i++, j++) {
        arrayObjects[j] = arrMember(arraySource[j]);
    }

    sort(arrayObjects.begin(), arrayObjects.end(), compare);
}

int main(){
    random_device rd{};
    mt19937 engine{ rd() };
    uniform_int_distribution<int> dist{ 0, 9999 };
    for (int x = 0; x < arraySource.size(); ++x){
        arraySource[x] = dist(engine);
    }

    cout << "Executing sort...\n";
    clock_t t1 = clock();
    sort();
    clock_t t2 = clock();
    double timeDiff = ((double)(t2 - t1)) / CLOCKS_PER_SEC;

    cout << "Sort finished. CPU time was " << timeDiff << " seconds.\n";

    arrayPrint();

    return 0;
}

Thanks for the help.