
tromagnetic (square-face) sector; and (ii)
torsional
(rotational) strain, corresponding to
relative rotations of adjacent coordination shells, which couples to the conned (triangle-
face) sector.
The distinction arises from geometry. Square faces are bipartite: their four nodes can
be displaced rigidly without inducing rotational mismatch. Triangular faces are non-
bipartite: displacing one node of a triangle necessarily rotates the face relative to its
neighbors. Torsional strain is therefore intrinsically a triangle-sector phenomenon.
7.2 Torsional cascade around a defect
When a baryon (topological defect) occupies a void in the FCC lattice, it disrupts the
local verication circuit. The disruption propagates outward through both sectors:
Translational disruption
(EM sector). The baryon's verication cost is
C
p
= E ×(V +
F ) = 1836 m
e
. This is the mass measured by electromagnetic probesthe baryonic mass.
Torsional disruption
(conned sector). Each of the
K + 1 = 13
structural nodes in the
coordination cluster carries
S
2
tors
torsional bond-states, where
S
tors
= K
2/3
= 12
2/3
≈ 5.24
is the torsional depth per node. The total torsional disruption per baryon, including a
crossing correction of
K = 12
, is:
C
tors
= (K + 1) × S
2
tors
× K − K
corr
(15)
The torsional cascade extends
beyond
the baryon's coordination shellit is a strain eld,
not a localized excitation. This strain eld:
(i)
Concentrates around defects.
Where matter is present, the torsional disruption is
highest. This produces dark-matter halos around galaxies.
(ii)
Extends beyond the visible disk.
The strain eld falls o more slowly than the
baryonic density, giving at rotation curves at large radius.
(iii)
Follows the gravitational potential, not the gas.
In a cluster collision (Bullet
Cluster), the gas is slowed by ram pressure, but the torsional straincarried by the
gravitational potential of the dominant dark componentpasses through. The strain
eld separates from the gas, exactly as observed [13].
(iv)
Does not self-interact.
Torsional strain at one lattice site does not scatter o
torsional strain at another site. The strain eld is collisionless, consistent with upper
limits on dark-matter self-interaction from cluster observations.
7.3 Consistency of the two ratios
The face ratio gives
F
△
/F
□
= 32/6 = 5.333
. The torsional cascade, when computed
explicitly, gives
C
tors
/C
p
= 5.360
. These dier by 0.49%both lie within Planck's
1σ
uncertainty. The small discrepancy reects the fact that the torsional cascade includes
vertex-sector contributions that the face-only ratio excludes. The two approaches are
compatible: the face ratio sets the budget, the torsional cascade describes the local dy-
namics.
8