Exact computational mathematics

One calibration query activates a finite adaptive advantage in frozen-versus-renewed dephasing tests

We quantify a finite calibration resource in one-sided discrimination between a frozen unknown qubit phase and independently renewed dephasing. With five signal queries, dephasing parameter eta=7/10, and one separate noiseless calibration query, an explicit causal strategy has failure probability 0.4657926731886833125. Every parallel five-signal strategy, even with perfect knowledge of the carrier, has failure probability at least 0.46603. The gap is certified by rational matrices and a solver-free verifier. Without calibration, no causal strategy improves the parallel minimax value, so one calibration query is sufficient and minimal at this signal budget. Six parallel signal queries already achieve 0.38442745; the displayed strategy gives no advantage when calibration and signal queries can be freely exchanged at equal cost. A trajectory bound also rules out an improved asymptotic error exponent. The contribution is a small explicit finite-resource construction, not a new phase-estimation framework or a claim of large scientific impact.

Working paper. Citable, but not yet screened for the AIRR collection.

Phase calibration unlocks adaptive tests for renewed quantum noise

Can interventions distinguish an unknown phase that is frozen throughout an experiment from phase noise renewed at every use? We study ordinary forward queries, arbitrary quantum memory, and exactly zero false positives for every frozen diagonal unitary. For any Schur channel with correlation matrix C, the optimal parallel failure probability is min over occupation vectors m of per(C[m])/n!. The same formula is the exact optimum over all causal strategies when the renewed channel has an unknown common phase carrier and failure is evaluated in the worst case over that carrier. Calibration changes this conclusion: for qubit dephasing we give a rational five-query certificate that beats every parallel strategy for 0.5331424052... < eta < 1. At eta=0.7, failure decreases from 0.46603 to 0.4602957928558. We prove physical realizability of the certificate, obtain exact causal limits at complete dephasing, and show that adaptation cannot improve the asymptotic failure exponent. The separation concerns finite-query performance under a calibrated statistical promise; it neither quantifies the hardware cost of a phase reference nor certifies a quantum environment.

Working paper. Citable, but not yet screened for the AIRR collection.

Polynomial vertex reduction and optimal stability at balanced inertia (4,4)

For every balanced sign multiplicity N and fixed ambient dimension, we reduce the optimal forward stability coefficient for inverse self-commutator cost to a rational list of O(N^5) spectral pairs. This counts Horn linear programs, not their size or total running time. At inertia (4,4), exact rational certificates for 89 ordered vertices establish the optimal coefficient 4/7 in every fixed ambient dimension at least eight. An ambient-independent Horn obstruction and a boundary perturbation prove sharpness. We classify the full equality set on the compact spectral closure and show strictness throughout the exact inertia stratum. Together with the previously sharp reverse coefficient 3/2, this completes both stability constants at multiplicity four. Constants for N at least five remain unevaluated. All finite certificates and replay programs are supplied; classical Horn sufficiency and written polyhedral arguments are explicit dependencies.

Sharp inertia ceilings and optimal stability for inverse self-commutators

We determine the sharp worst inverse self-commutator cost for every prescribed inertia, including arbitrary ambient zeros, and quantify its extremal geometry. For unequal sign multiplicities we obtain both optimal constants relating the normalized cost deficit to distance from the one-spike, opposite-flat boundary. The reverse coefficient is also optimal for every balanced inertia. For three positive and three negative eigenvalues we close the other direction as well: the optimal forward coefficient is 17/36. Its proof reduces a piecewise-affine distance to 22 rational vertices and supplies exact Horn witnesses; a boundary spectrum gives ambient-independent sharpness. Thus every nearly extremal sequence is classified. A transportation refinement gives computable primal-dual upper certificates, while an exact example shows a 12.5% gap from the actual matrix cost. A sharp deficit threshold also reduces rank-ceiling stability to the known one-spike case. Classical Horn sufficiency is imported; all finite certificates are supplied for replay. The optimal balanced forward coefficient for multiplicity at least four and the general interior cost remain open here.

Exact Rank Transitions through p=32 and a Half-Integral Optimum at p=53

For F_(p,q)=diag(q repeated p times, -p repeated q times), this paper studies the least rank among factors minimizing one half of the squared Hilbert--Schmidt norm subject to CC^*-C^*C=2F. On q=2p+1, exact rational hive primal-dual certificates determine the complete finite cost-and-rank frontier for 4<=p<=32: the rank excess above q is 0 on p=4..7, 1 on p=8..14, 2 on p=15..26, 3 at p=27, and 4 on p=28..32. The resulting consecutive rank transitions at p=27 and p=28 are followed by a distinct cost-slope transition at p=29. Separately, exact certificates prove kappa(F_(53,107))=8847 with minimum attaining rank 115; its optimum is half-integral, while an earlier integer candidate of trace 8843 is refuted by an integral Farkas certificate. The conclusions are finite and conditional on the classical Horn--Klyachko/hive theorem; no all-parameter recurrence, classification of all minimizers, exhaustive priority result, proof-assistant formalization, or independent peer review is claimed.