Purpose and ScopeThis document pre-registers an empirical test of a specific prediction about the relative sensitivity of polarization observables to different classes of theoretical input in quasi-elastic proton knockout reactions. The prediction is that optical-potential parameters govern polarization-observable predictions more strongly than non-optical-potential parameters (bound-state wavefunction choice, nuclear current operator prescription, electromagnetic form factor parametrization) across eligible datasets.The test is pre-registered to establish methodological discipline and priority. Analysis will proceed only after this document is time-stamped at a public registry 2. Generating FrameworkThe prediction is derived from the Law of Recursion (Gaconnet, 2026a), which claims that in active exchange processes, boundary/interface structures govern exchange outcomes more strongly than bulk or interior structures. Applied to nuclear knockout, the Law identifies the optical potential as the membrane node of the seven-node topology. Membrane governance, as a feature of the framework, predicts that parameters describing the optical potential should dominate the sensitivity of observables that measure the exchange outcome. This pre-registration tests the empirical prediction. It does not test the Law of Recursion as a first principle, nor does it establish structural unification across domains. Those claims require separate work. The present test is successful or unsuccessful on its own terms.
Don Gaconnet (Fri,) studied this question.