From Quark–Gluon Relations to Persistent Hadronic Closure: An SFM 2.0 and RCG Analysis of Confinement, Hadron Formation, Persistence Locking, Electromagnetic Interrogation, and Cross-Scale Handover

Paper 2 of 8 in the Recursive Continuity Geometry Across Physical Scale series. This paper applies the Structural Fingerprint Method Version 2.0 and Recursive Continuity Geometry to the transition from quark–gluon relations to persistent hadronic closure. Quantum Chromodynamics remains the governing theory of quark–gluon dynamics, confinement, hadron formation and decay, while Quantum Electrodynamics governs electromagnetic interrogation. The PATON framework provides a structural map of recurrence, persistence locking, admissibility, reconfiguration, ordered traversal and cross-scale handover. The paper distinguishes colour-singlet closure from next-scale usability and compares the proton, free neutron and Delta(1232) resonance using declared persistence timescales. It also defines a falsifiable programme using lattice-QCD spectra, resonance widths, scattering form factors and multi-probe reconstruction.