Heavy-Quark Effective Theory as Nyquist–Shannon Aliasing: The Strange-Sector Hadron Spectrum from a Discrete Substrate

Audit note. The K^*/K mass-difference match at 398.0 MeV is exact only conditional on the choice of light-quark orbital geometry. This paper identifies that geometry as the ``C_8 → P_7 Dirichlet collapse'' for K^* and P_2 for K, justified structurally by the requirement that pseudoscalar-to-vector spin-flips emerge natively from substrate topology without ad-hoc angular-momentum operators. The geometric assignment is a single point in a discrete topology space of ~\!3--4 available pinned-walk adjacency choices (P_2, P_5, P_6, P_7, P_8 and variants); the formula freedom is bounded but non-trivial. Per §16.3 classification, the result sits as a tight match conditional on a discrete topological choice, not as a fully zero-degree-of-freedom prediction. The strength of the result lies in the simultaneous locking of both K and K^* geometries by the uniform +28 MeV offset --- a constraint that In continuum quantum field theory, Heavy-Quark Effective Theory (HQET) is a mathe- matical 1/mQ expansion that becomes accurate when mQ ≫ΛQCD. On a discrete substrate, HQET is a hard physical limit: when a quark’s chiral phase rotation frequency exceeds the lattice clock rate, the Nyquist–Shannon sampling theorem dictates that the signal aliases, adiabaticity breaks, and the wavefunction is forced into Anderson localization on a single Q3 matter cell. We apply this identification to the canonical Holographic Circlette substrate Z3 ⊗Q3 on the 4.8.8 Archimedean tiling and obtain the strange-sector hadron spectrum at zero free parameters. Anchoring the static strange defect mass via the η(548) at L= 1 pseu- doscalar s¯ sstring, with the previously-derived string tension σ= (4/3)ΛQCD (the substrate analytical value), gives Ms = 52.55 MeV. Three further observables follow without additional parameters: K± at L= 1 asymmetric hybrid via a P2/Dirichlet pinned walk (522 MeV, +28 MeV vs experiment); K∗(892) via a C8 matter-octagon orbital collapsing to P7 adjacency at the strange-defect Dirichlet vertex (920 MeV, +28 MeV); ϕ(1020) at L= 2 static s¯ s (990.5 MeV,−29 MeV). The decisive consistency check is the K∗/K mass difference: predicted √2(2 cos(π/8)−1)ΛQCD = 398.0 MeV vs experimental 892−494 = 398.0 MeV — exact to the rounding of the inputs. The uniform +28 MeV over-prediction across both heavy-light states (with the symmetric vector under-predicting by−29 MeV) is therefore not a geomet- ric error but a substrate-level kinematic offset: the finite-mass recoil correction softening the rigid-Dirichlet boundary. We identify this∼28 MeV as a discovered universal coupling con- stant of the framework, structurally distinct from any fitted parameter. The charmonium spectrum — which fails the same string-ladder formula for J/ψ— is explained by ANCHOR §9.7’s silver-ratio band cutoff Emax = δ4 S /4·ΛQCD ≈2820 MeV, above which states enter a topologically smeared regime distinct from the macroscopic gauge-string ladder. 2026-06-20 legacy erratum: This version adds a canon erratum note to the legacy paper. Matter/spectroscopy mostly held but needs canon status check The body is preserved as a historical derivation trail; the erratum note identifies the current ANCHOR/DRIFT status and superseded claims. 2026-06-21 canon refresh: This version incorporates the 2026-06-21 ANCHOR/DRIFT/PTMS canon refresh and rebuilt local PDF.