This record contains a theoretical manuscript proposing a metatheoretical classification framework for physical claims in superstring theory, M-theory, and related areas of high-energy physics. The framework classifies claims according to assumptions, proof status, and domain of applicability, distinguishing massless sectors, certified gapped sectors, continuum sectors, and open sectors. The manuscript introduces an auxiliary internal criterion, FYMC, for the conditional classification of four-dimensional Yang--Mills sectors as certified gapped sectors. FYMC is not presented as a solution to the Yang--Mills mass-gap problem, but as a bookkeeping criterion within the proposed framework. The work does not claim to solve existing open problems such as the Yang--Mills mass gap, general nonperturbative M-theory, controlled de Sitter vacua, or the black-hole information problem. Its aim is to clarify the admissibility and scope of physical claims within existing theoretical frameworks.
Hidetoshi Itakura (Tue,) studied this question.