Finite-Information QCD: A Pre-Registered Fingerprint Protocol at a Derived Lattice Spacing

Abstract

In the substrate programme the lattice spacing is not a regulator: it is a derived physical constant, a₀ = 0.59494 fm (equivalently ħc/a₀ = 331.7 MeV), with no continuum limit to take — so deviations from continuum-extrapolated QCD at this spacing are predictions, not artifacts. That claim invites unlimited after-the-fact fitting unless the deviation list is frozen first, and this document freezes it. It registers: the closed four-item fingerprint list (an orientation-averaged ℓ = 4 potential scalar; the three-quark junction geometry; glueball mass ratios at a₀; the roughening/Lüscher crossover), each with estimator, comparator, and kill rule; the paired-lattice differential protocol that separates geometry fingerprints from generic finite-spacing effects; the gate results that scoped the list — the isotropy gate (domain averaging kills all orientation-vector signals; Hughes–Drever-class bounds are cleared by construction, with the surviving sensitivity c ≲ 4×10⁻¹⁸ registered as a standing falsifier) and the dispersion/umklapp audit (free kinematics is record-grade exact; the umklapp channel dies four enumerated ways; the free-kinematics fingerprint class is empty and retired); and a two-stage freeze discipline — the hypothesis space and decision rules are fixed before any production compute, and a versioned addendum will fix measured coefficients before the physical-point confrontation. Every outcome is informative: a null across all four fingerprints is a universality result that hardens the programme's QCD-reproduction claim, while the glueball clause gives the physical-point claim a genuine external kill.

Keywords

How to cite

Elliman, D. (2026). Finite-Information QCD: A Pre-Registered Fingerprint Protocol at a Derived Lattice Spacing. Neuro-Symbolic Ltd technical report. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21203853

@techreport{elliman2026fiqcdfingerprintprereg,
  author      = {Elliman, David},
  title       = {Finite-Information QCD: A Pre-Registered Fingerprint Protocol at a Derived Lattice Spacing},
  institution = {Neuro-Symbolic Ltd},
  year        = {2026},
  doi         = {10.5281/zenodo.21203853},
  url         = {https://neusym.ai/papers/fi_qcd_fingerprint_prereg}
}