Independently audit QQ16 cut recovery with payload-sensitive operators

[ywz65]

PR2443's retained F0/B1 cut decoder passes an independent exact operator audit on all 224 formal input arrays and all 224 independent observation arrays. Reviewer-written code checks both cut inverse orders and both F0 inverse orders using the actual 73-dimensional owner maps; no predecessor executable is imported.

The added regression target is payload-sensitive: replacing the logical owner-only chart D=(rho,0) with the physical alignment A=(rho,delta) produces an explicit nonzero arbitrary-payload residual, while the same faulty decoder passes after every payload shift is forgotten. Thus all payload-constant fixtures miss this fault. This is an injected fault, not a defect found in PR2443. PR2432's 88-read family threshold and unread basis, and PR2443's arbitrary-input recovery, retain credit; no new read minimum is claimed.

Only research/qq16-cut-operator-audit/ is added. The package contains the proof interpretation, independent checker, complete deterministic receipt, source pins and focused integrity controls. R is reconstructed from the retained scalar prefix; all 224 stage-1/stage-2 route/inverse pairs are reconstructed from phase geometry and rebound to the emitted QQ16 packet. Each rejected operator residual includes a concrete input-array/owner/payload address witness.

Validation on Windows:

• Python 3.12.7 registered replay passes: normal and optimized exact checks, seven semantic faults, every live-source corruption, and four focused integrity/operator tests.
• Python 3.14.5 direct replay agrees. Selected baseline bindings and git diff --check pass.
• A separate Codex agent reviewed the proof, source binding, scope and controls and reran the optimized Python 3.12 checker without finding an actionable issue. No human or proof-assistant review is claimed.

python3.12 -I -B scripts/research_package.py --package research/qq16-cut-operator-audit

Base: canonical main 0fdd7d82de03e43c9e5a1000dfbcd380d1b687d2, priority revision 4. Audited PR2443 head: 545c05e17243c962b112b91e7f84b4c1a41de7b8; PR2432 context: cbede349fc764aa38379aa533befe3215916cfcd. Exact Git blobs and SHA-256 pins are in SOURCES.json and PREDECESSORS.json. Advance claim.

The granted records span two cuts: 32 selected F0 arrays, eight B1 A arrays, 96 B1 ordinary target arrays and 88 ordinary F0 reads. The audit checks the mathematical decoder from the displayed formulas, not PR2443's Python execution or native lowering. Full-controller endpoint availability, retention, physical reads, storage, cleanup, hosting, addresses, precision and a complete supplier invoice remain open. No selected frontier, frozen source, supplier or kappa changes; no selected cold replay or full multiplication-theorem verification is claimed.

Credit: starship-s / PR2443; Gareth Davidson / PR2432; commdata2338 / PR2174; Ali Romman / PR1969; Adam Gall / PR2093; kyzer1023 / PR2354; PR2389/2419; and the retained Rohan Arun, Jeremy Kothe, DreamingOfClouds and source lineage. Prepared by ywz65 with substantial OpenAI Codex assistance in derivation, implementation, validation and writing. Apache-2.0.