32 Panoramic Reconstruction of Large-Scale Orientation Synergy (Polarization / Magnetic Fields / Dust)

Home ／ Appendix-Prediction and Falsification

This chapter follows the publication template for the falsification program. It uses plain language, avoids equations, and preserves the fixed structure. We unify angle/frequency/time calibration and source-end standards to integrate dust polarized emission, synchrotron polarization, stellar polarization with distances, Faraday rotation (Rotation Measure, RM) grids, atomic/molecular velocity–gradient magnetic proxies, and dust ridge morphology. After removing bandpass/beam/leakage/scan-striping/Faraday-dispersion systematics, we test for a frequency-independent common term that produces orientation alignment (co-linear/co-planar) across probes, is cross-band robust after de-rotation, shows zero-lag co-occurrence across seasons/tasks, and varies monotonically with environmental strength (column density/turbulence/magnetic pressure/filament proximity). If alignment can be explained by RM residuals, angle-zero drift, I→Q/U leakage, E–B leakage, or scan geometry—or fails to replicate across platforms/teams—the claim is disfavored.

I. One-Sentence Goal

Reconstruct panoramic and tomographic large-scale (≥ a few degrees) orientation fields and test whether multiple probes exhibit a non-dispersive, zero-lag, environment-modulated alignment indicative of a common path term rather than medium or pipeline artifacts.

II. What to Measure

• Orientation-synergy index (text grades):
  At co-located, co-window resolution, compute the relative-angle distributions for probe pairs—dust vs synchrotron polarization, dust vs stellar polarization, polarization vs dust-ridge major axis, polarization vs velocity-gradient magnetic proxy—and report a synergy index and co-linearity, graded strong / medium / weak; uplift / depression, with parallel / perpendicular / oblique tags.
• Non-dispersion consistency:
  Compare high-frequency dust sub-bands and low/mid-frequency synchrotron sub-bands after RM de-rotation to λ→0. Require stable direction and strength ranking of the synergy index. λ² / 1/ν flips or rescalings are classified as dispersion/chain effects.
• Zero-lag co-occurrence:
  Across season / attitude / mission splits, grade zero-lag peaks and side-lobe contrast of the synergy index (strong/medium/weak). Significant lags or single-split significance are downgraded.
• Environmental monotonicity and layering:
  Using N_H / E(B–V), dust temperature, turbulence proxies (line width/density fluctuations), plasma β, RM amplitude, distance to cosmic-filament nodes, and Galactic latitude, grade alignment as enhance / plateau / uncorrelated. With Gaia distances, compare shells to assess line-of-sight layering and |b| stratification.
• Morphology–orientation concordance:
  Extract dust ridges/skeletons (structure-tensor/skeleton/Hough methods) and quantify parallel/perpendicular preferences with polarization. Cross-probe co-rotation of orientation with ridge turning earns credit.
• E/B-mode robustness (text):
  Under a common PSF and mask, compare the principal-axis orientations of E/B-decomposed fields to raw Q/U orientations. If E–B leakage changes the ordering, treat as a methodological artifact.

III. How to Do It

1. Data and probe families:
   • Dust polarization (high-frequency): multiple sub-bands in Faraday-quiet windows with sidelobe/band-edge logs.
   • Synchrotron polarization (low/mid-frequency): intra-band sub-bands for RM synthesis and de-rotation; deliver λ→0 orientation fields with residual limits.
   • Stellar polarization + distances: build distance-shell orientation maps with Gaia parallaxes.
   • RM grids and external polarization references: characterize Faraday screens and absolute orientation baselines.
   • Velocity-gradient magnetic proxy: from H I/CO cubes derive velocity-gradient directions as an independent in-plane magnetic tracer.
   • Dust ridge morphology: extract skeletons/ridges and major axes from dust intensity/extinction maps.
2. Unified calibration and de-systematics:
   • Angle zero and conventions: unify polarization-angle zeros and handedness across missions using standard polarized calibrators with closure checks.
   • I→Q/U leakage and differential beams: supply leakage templates and differential-beam corrections, unify to a common PSF.
   • RM de-rotation: solve per sub-band to obtain λ→0 fields and publish residual/confidence levels; hold out high-RM zones and validate in high-frequency dust windows.
   • Pixels and masks: adopt common pixel scale/mask; down-weight boundary pixels and report separately.
3. Panorama and tomography:
   • Co-located, co-window tiling: build orientation grids by sky block × sub-band × distance shell, with text labels.
   • Synergy index and co-linearity: compute index and parallel/perpendicular preference ratios (text-graded) for all probe pairs.
   • Layered comparison: evaluate direction/strength ordering across distance shells / Galactic latitude / environment quantiles.
4. Forward prediction, blinding, arbitration:
   • Environment team (forward): using only ridges/skeletons, RM/N_H/turbulence/β/Galactic geometry and masks, issue prediction cards per unit: expected parallel/perpendicular/oblique preference, strength tier, monotonic/plateau trends, and post-de-rotation non-dispersion.
   • Measurement teams (independent pipelines): with ≥2 cleaning paths and two pixel/mask resolutions, produce orientation fields, synergy indices, and non-dispersion/zero-lag verdicts.
   • Arbitration: align predictions and summaries; report hit / wrong / null rates across sky/band/season/method strata.

IV. Positive/Negative Controls and Artifact Removal

1. Positive controls (support orientation synergy):
   • After de-rotation, dust–synchrotron–stellar–velocity-gradient orientations show consistent direction/strength ordering, with stable parallel/perpendicular preferences to dust ridges.
   • Non-dispersion holds across bands/sub-bands/missions/seasons; the synergy index exhibits significant zero-lag across splits.
   • Environment monotonicity/plateau appears versus N_H/turbulence/β/filament proximity, consistent across distance shells.
   • Cross-platform/team replication and prediction-card hit rates significantly above chance.
2. Negative controls (against orientation synergy):
   • Orientation flips/scales with λ² / 1/ν / band-edge, or tracks RM residuals.
   • Significance occurs only in one band/mission/path or is highly sensitive to pixel/mask/smoothing kernels.
   • I→Q/U leakage, differential beams, E–B leakage, or scan striping can reproduce preferences.
   • Label swaps/mask rotations/de-rotation-parameter shuffles still return “detections,” indicating bias.

V. Systematics and Safeguards (Three Items)

• Polarization angle zero-point drift and cross-mission bias: may fake parallel/perpendicular preferences. Safeguard: absolute calibration/closure on standards; publish angle-zero logs; include angle-jitter tolerance in analysis.
• I→Q/U leakage and differential beams: project intensity morphology into false orientations. Safeguard: leakage templates, differential-beam corrections, common PSF, and inject–recover/band-edge hold-outs.
• Incomplete de-rotation and intra-band dispersion: residual λ² rotation hides common terms. Safeguard: multi-sub-band RM synthesis with residual limits; hold out high-RM regions; cross-validate in dust high-frequency windows.

VI. Execution and Transparency

Pre-register probe lists, sub-bands, pixel/mask choices, unified calibration/de-systematics pipelines, criteria for synergy/co-linearity/non-dispersion/zero-lag, environment variables and binning, and all controls/exclusions and arbitration. Reserve held-out sky blocks/sub-bands in high-RM / strong-dust / ridge-junction zones for final confirmation. Enable cross-team/platform replication via raw Q/U/intensity/RM cubes/velocity cubes and scripts; run down-sampling/noise/kernel variants/de-rotation perturbations. Publicly release prediction cards, synergy-index tables, parallel/perpendicular maps, non-dispersion and co-occurrence summaries, and angle/bandpass/beam/leakage/RM logs, with key intermediates. This chapter closes an orientation–environment–tomography loop with Chapters 15 (quasar polarization group alignment), 8 (AGN jet–filament co-alignment), 17 (satellite-plane vs filament alignment), and 27 (path-redshift 4D tomography).

VII. Pass/Fail Criteria

1. Support (passes):
   • In two or more pipelines, two or more platforms/missions, and multiple sub-bands, obtain post-de-rotation synergy indices and parallel/perpendicular preferences that satisfy non-dispersion and zero-lag co-occurrence.
   • Alignment increases monotonically or plateaus with environment strength, and trends agree across distance shells and Galactic-latitude strata.
   • Prediction-card hits exceed chance; conclusions are robust to angle/beam/leakage/mask/pixel choices.
2. Refutation (fails):
   • Results obey dispersive laws or are dominated by de-rotation residuals/leakage/beam/scan effects; replication fails.
   • Synergy is aperture-fragile or lacks environmental monotonicity.
   • Arbitration hits are near chance; signals vanish in held-out regions/sub-bands.