NP-01 · August 19, 2026

Light-Quark → Nucleon-Mass Response

A frozen fixed-t0 RGI light-quark response curve survives lattice-spacing robustness checks from −20% through +20% without promoting the result to a physical sigma term.

Frozen response

The result is a controlled local response, not a physical sigma-term claim.

Dimensionless response

0.04650 ± 0.01602

Kud = d ln MN / d ln mud at fixed t0.

Fixed-t0 local slope

43.76 ± 14.42 MeV

Σud(t0 fixed). This label is intentionally retained to prevent promotion to a physical sigma term.

Lattice coverage

24 ensembles

Five lattice spacings enter the frozen response and leave-one-β robustness audit.

NP-01 verdict: PASS. The sign and monotonic direction survive every leave-one-lattice-spacing rerun; the physical sigma-term promotion is explicitly superseded.

Prediction curve

Finite light-quark shifts produce a frozen nucleon-mass response.

ΔmudPredicted ΔMNConservative σLeave-one-β central range
−20%−8.808 MeV2.940 MeV−10.448 to −6.825 MeV
−10%−4.390 MeV1.456 MeV−5.202 to −3.403 MeV
−5%−2.192 MeV0.725 MeV−2.596 to −1.699 MeV
+5%+2.185 MeV0.719 MeV+1.694 to +2.585 MeV
+10%+4.362 MeV1.429 MeV+3.384 to +5.159 MeV
+20%+8.697 MeV2.826 MeV+6.750 to +10.275 MeV

Robustness

The important part is the direction surviving the lattice-spacing audit.

The central fixed-t0 response remains positive under every leave-one-β rerun. Curvature and strange-response promotions did not survive the same level of scrutiny and are therefore not carried as predictions.

β omitted → Σud(t0 fixed) central value (MeV)3.40 → 33.94 · 3.46 → 43.00 · 3.55 → 51.81 · 3.70 → 34.91 · 3.85 → 44.08
Claim boundary

What this does not say

It is not a direct physical pion-nucleon sigma-term determination.

It does not promote the earlier light-curvature result.

It does not promote the strange response.

The prediction is the fixed-t0 response curve and its robustness envelope.

Reproducibility path

Find the exact frozen inputs inside the verified bundle.

python -m harness.run_all_gates
Bundle paths:
research/new_predictions/reproduce_new_predictions.py
research/new_predictions/support/UTFANSWF_V23_LIGHT_QUARK_NUCLEON_RESPONSE_CURVE_FROZEN_2026-08-19.json
research/new_predictions/support/UTFANSWF_V23_QCD_RESPONSE_ROBUSTNESS_SUPERSESSION_2026-08-19.json
results/new_predictions/result.json