Field-Structured Dissipative Protocells: An Operational Reporting Framework for Compartments, Gradients, and Records

Protocell experiments combine compartments, reaction networks, gradients, scaffolds, and possible forms of memory, but these ingredients are often reported in mutually incompatible ways. We define a Field-Structured Dissipative Protocell (FSDP) as an operational data structure S=(K,c,Phi,Sigma,X,Q,R) together with constitutive equations, controls, and uncertainty. Here K is the compartment, c its chemical state, Phi the maintained thermodynamic drives, Sigma the organizing scaffold, X the reaction network, Q an optional independently diagnosed quantum-sensitive channel, and R an optional record. The tuple is a reporting grammar, not a universal dynamical law. We supply reaction-transport equations, an observable log-contrast, exact orientation averaging for linear Stark coupling, a one-dimensional tunneling calibration, and gates distinguishing retention, causal memory, copying, and Darwinian selection. Recent experiments provide concrete anchors: nonequilibrium heat flow can confine and feed a membraneless reactor; synthetic cells can use electrochemical coupling for nutrient transport; fueled droplets can persist out of equilibrium; and liposomes can support adaptive DNA evolution or integrate DNA replication with lipid synthesis. These results validate separate portions of the grammar. They do not yet demonstrate one prebiotically plausible system containing every component, nor do they establish a quantum contribution to protocell fitness. The framework therefore yields a coverage map and preregistrable experiments, while keeping the broader BEQ interpretation explicitly conditional.