Auditing Record State

This Methods paper specifies a loop-scaling diagnostic that distinguishes record-driven path dependence from rate-driven or confound-induced hysteresis. When a system's response under a constraint sweep differs on the return path, the protocol tests whether loop area scales with an independently audited record state — the signature of genuine record coupling — rather than reflecting sweep-rate lag, instrument hysteresis, minor-loop violation, additive offset, or circular measurement of the record proxy itself.

The diagnostic operates in two regimes: discrete-state, with the base-case prediction dA/dR = 4α, and continuous-state, using a predeclared scalar response coordinate plus a sweep-rate audit that extrapolates to the quasi-static loop area. Its central discipline is separating the rate-independent, record-driven component of loop area from rate-driven contributions — a positive finite-rate loop that extrapolates to roughly zero quasi-static area is rate lag, not an S₃ signature, and the protocol is built to tell the two apart. Its formal pair, TN-S₃, proves the single-hysteron base case.

What acceptance commits you to. Acceptance does not require adopting Universal Collapse Theory. It requires only that the conditional lemma is correct and that the audit improves discrimination over standard hysteresis-summary statistics. The rice-transcriptome execution is a step-response target on which the sweep-rate audit is not executable, so its result is reported under stated rate-confound caveats rather than as a full rate-audited S₃ positive.

Keywords: hysteresis audit; loop scaling; sweep rate; record state; S₃ signature.