Relational Geometric Mechanics VIII: The Quark Sector — Mass as Relational Geometry, SU(3) Color Inflation, and the Standard Model Parameter Collapse

This is the eighth paper in the Relational Geometric Mechanics (RGM) series. We extend the generation structure framework of Paper VII to the quark sector and establish a systematic account of why quarks do not satisfy the Koide formula K = 2/3. The central result is that quarks were predicted — before any numerical calculation — to deviate above K = 2/3 due to the SU (3) color charge adding a cross-product self-interaction term to the generation well geometry. This is the same cross-product term identified in Paper IV as the origin of quark confinement. The prediction is confirmed: Kd = 0. 732 and Kᵤ = 0. 849, both systematically above 2/3. Mass is identified as a relational geometric quantity in the QF foam — not an intrinsic property of a particle but the distance of its descriptor from the Qᵥac floor. The ratio of quark K-deviations Rᵤd = 2. 80 is identified as a precision prediction target encoding both U (1) and SU (3) structure. The Standard Model's 19 free parameters are shown to organize into three layers of geometric structure, pointing toward a significant reduction in genuine free inputs.