Internal audit: central meridian vacuum

8 September 2026. Self-audit, not independent specialist or peer review.

Exact obligation and outcome

The prior all-plus projection could not prove zero in the full six-root module. The new proof does not reverse that projection. It constructs a finite identity in the quantum torus over the universal central involution ring. Its squared edge and meridian relations factor through the actual signed generators. This answers the full-vacuum question for the declared figure-eight datum.

Checks of the argument

• Correct sides: every tetrahedron term is a left multiple of its relation; every edge and filling term is a right multiple. No two-sided quotient is substituted.
• Central signs: coefficients retain independent formal involutions. Squares remove the character only in squared moment generators; original generators still carry it. Any actual central character is a specialization of the universal identity.
• Finite construction: the eight tetrahedron terms normalize to the vacuum; integer telescoping gives explicit finite edge and filling multipliers, including negative powers. No convergence is needed for zero.
• Transport: the cyclic map preserves Weyl multiplication and the tetrahedron relation side. Inverse transport and reversed meridian orientation are checked exactly.
• Arithmetic: the full identity is checked in Weyl coordinates and in ordered z/w coordinates. These are two arithmetic implementations in one authored verifier, not two independent audits.
• Nonzero target: this uses the retained convergent all-plus unit detector. A nonzero projected unit proves a nonzero unit upstairs; this is the valid direction of implication.
• Zero descended trace: it additionally uses the retained generic filling isomorphism and named-action comparison. The filled empty skein corresponds to 1-l². Meridian filling is S³, whose skein module is generated by the empty skein. This is not inferred from the finite identity alone.
• External statement: Panitch–Romo Conjecture 7.1 requests a nontrivial quotient and a commuting map, not explicitly a nonzero map. A nonzero boundary-balanced quotient with zero image is therefore not a counterexample.
• Next reduction: D=Q/T(ker p) is universal among compatible linear quotients over the declared field. The identity ker(bar T)=p(ker T) proves the exact sequence in the note. No assertion about an integral or stronger module-category universal property is made.

Useful failure and remaining obligation

Searching complementary sign components for a detector of this boundary-balanced meridian vacuum is now futile: the universal finite certificate kills it before specialization. What remains undecided is whether ker T is contained in ker p for the actual unfilled named trace and meridian bracket evaluation. A smaller compatible quotient can preserve a vacuum that a larger quotient kills. No equality between T(ker p) and the full boundary-balanced relation span has been established.

The source datum and native convention dictionary remain explicit dependencies. No new proof of those geometric inputs, unrestricted conjecture resolution, triangulation independence, or external validation is claimed.