# Research scope

## Primary object of study

The programme studies **multiscale galaxy structural fingerprints** generated from ordered baryonic-acceleration ladders.

For each galaxy:

- STRUC-I supplies κ-dependent persistence/admissibility curves;
- STRUC-PERC-I supplies fragmentation and connectivity descriptors;
- complete response curves define the structural fingerprint;
- ladder geometry and observational coverage define how that fingerprint is expressed;
- conventional galaxy properties provide physical alignment coordinates.

## Established foundation

The project has already established that:

1. complete response curves distinguish galaxies with exceptional unchanged-ladder reproducibility;
2. the response space is organized and partly low-dimensional;
3. the atlas aligns with both galaxy properties and observational geometry;
4. persistence, fragmentation, and connectivity are distinct structural dimensions;
5. the static global gravity-transfer architecture is not the scale at which the fingerprints add predictive value.

## Current question hierarchy

### Tier 1 — fingerprint transformation geometry

1. **Sampling response**  
   How does each fingerprint move as point count, gap structure, and radial coverage change?

2. **Uncertainty response**  
   What region of fingerprint space is occupied by observational realizations of the same galaxy?

3. **Normalized coordinates**  
   Which structural descriptors retain galaxy organization after explicit representation normalization?

4. **Regime geometry**  
   How do Stable Structure, Weak Persistence, HARD_FRAGMENTATION, and FULL_PERCOLATION organize the atlas individually and jointly?

### Tier 2 — physical structure

5. **Physical alignment**  
   How do the fingerprints track surface brightness, luminosity, gas content, rotation scale, morphology, and component balance?

6. **Structural analogues**  
   Which conventionally different galaxies share a close multiscale response architecture?

7. **Structural anomalies**  
   Which galaxies remain unusual after matching ordinary galaxy properties and observation geometry?

8. **Component origin**  
   Which response modes arise from gas, disk, bulge, or combined baryonic structure?

### Tier 3 — new transfer hypotheses

9. **Local transition alignment**  
   Do changes in ρ(κ) align with radial changes in gravitational discrepancy?

10. **Regime-conditioned transfer**  
    Does predictive value emerge within specific structural regimes rather than through one global galaxy-level coefficient?

11. **Prospective transfer**  
    Can frozen normalized fingerprints predict structure in an external rotation-curve corpus?

## Interpretation rule

Use the following hierarchy:

```
fingerprint exists
    ↓
fingerprint is reproducible
    ↓
fingerprint expression changes with representation
    ↓
representation sensitivity can be modelled and normalized
    ↓
physical and transfer interpretations can be sharpened
```

A limitation narrows the scope of a finding; it does not delete the finding.
