Principal Investigator: A. Hewitt
Status: COMPLETE (Hypothesis Falsified)
Date: December 30th, 2025

1. Project Overview

Project Ouroboros was a computational investigation into the Parochial by Construction (PbC) hypothesis. This framework posited that the apparent "fine-tuning" of the Universe's history might be a retro-causal artifact selected to be compatible with the local observer's reference frame (the Solar System).

The pipeline performed a rigorous Null-Test Audit (N >= 1000) across three cosmological epochs:

1. The CMB (Phase I-IV): Testing geometric alignments of temperature anomalies.
2. The Dark Ages: Testing kinematic coupling of the Dipole.
3. The Reionization Era: Testing structural alignment of High-Z Quasars.

2. Final Results

The investigation systematically ruled out the hypothesis across all domains.

Investigation	Target Vector	P-Value	Conclusion
A. Parity Mirror	Solar Spin Axis	0.890	Null (Counter-Aligned)
B. Cold Spot	Ecliptic Nodes	0.614	Null (Random Placement)
C. Quasar Structure	Solar Spin Axis	0.221	Null (Random Orientation)
D. Axis of Evil ($l=2,3$)	Solar System	0.459	Null (No Solar Correlation)

The "Death of the Axis" (Phase VI)

We investigated the anomalous alignment between the CMB Quadrupole ($l=2$) and Octopole ($l=3$), which are observed to be parallel within ~9 degrees.

• Mask Robustness: The alignment is not a mask artifact. It persists ($p \approx 0.016$) across all Galactic cut thresholds ($f_{sky} 36% - 100%$).
• Directional Coherence: We compared the $l=2,3$ axis to the secondary alignment found at $l=5,6$.
  • Result: The two anomalies are separated by 55.6°.
  • Significance: This falls in the center of the random isotropic distribution ($p=0.43$).
• Verdict: The "Axis of Evil" is a statistical fluctuation consistent with the Look-Elsewhere Effect in a Gaussian Random Field. It lacks the global coherence required by physical anisotropy models (e.g., Toroidal Topology).

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3. Repository Structure

/scripts (Execution Entry Points)

These scripts run specific scientific audits.

Phase I: Initial Ledger Audit

Phase II: Geometric Audits

• run_parity_pipeline.py: Calculates Point-Parity Asymmetry and checks alignment with Solar Spin/Orbit.
• run_geo_pipeline.py: Checks if the Eridanus Supervoid (Cold Spot) is geometrically locked to Ecliptic Nodes.
• run_quasar_pipeline.py: (Plan C) Analyzes separation vectors of High-Z Quasars (z > 2.5) relative to Solar Angular Momentum.

Phase III: Kinematic Audits

• run_phase3_tomography.py: Slices the Parity signal into multipole bins (l=2-30, 31-60, 61-100) to check for directional stability (The "Drift" Test).

Phase IV: Harmonic & Variance Audits (The "Axis of Evil")

• run_harmonics.py: Extracts the Principal Axes ("Pancakes") of the l=2 and l=3 modes.
• run_harmonics_null.py: Tests if the Octopole (l=3) is statistically locked to the Ecliptic Pole.
• run_axis_validity.py: The "Axis of Evil" Test. Checks if the internal l=2/3 alignment is anomalous vs. a masked random sky.
• run_variance_pipeline.py: Tests the "Shielding Hypothesis" (Is the Ecliptic plane anomalously quiet?).
• run_jackknife.py: Re-runs the variance test with a harsh Galactic Cut (|b| > 40 deg) to rule out foregrounds.

Phase V - VI: The Axis of Evil (Harmonic Audits)

• run_harmonics.py: Extracts Principal Axes (Eigenvectors) for multipoles.
• run_axis_validity.py: Tests alignment significance against random skies.
• run_separation_forensics.py: Phase VI (The Killer). Calculates the orthogonality of the $l=2,3$ and $l=5,6$ axes.

Utilities

• inspect_columns.py: Helper to view FITS headers for catalog debugging.

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/src/ouroboros/engines (Physics Logic)

Core mathematical modules implementing the specific tests.

• parity.py: Implements P(n) = C(n) + C(-n) symmetry calculations on Healpix maps.
• geo.py: Geodesic distance calculators for void/node alignment.
• quasar.py: 3D vector algebra for quasar distribution analysis (includes memory-mapped loading for DESI).
• harmonics.py: Eigenvalue decomposition for extracting multipole orientation vectors.

/src/ouroboros/validation (Statistical Controls)

Generators for the Null Hypothesis.

• nulling.py: Generates random realizations of the CMB by shuffling a_lm phases while preserving the Power Spectrum (C_l).
• shuffling.py: Generates random Quasar catalogs by rotating positions on the sphere.

/src/ouroboros (Core)

• ingestion.py: Standardized loading for Planck SMICA/NPIPE maps (downgrading to NSIDE=64).
• config.py: Central repository of Solar System vector constants (Solar Spin, Ecliptic Pole, Dipole).

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4. Usage

To reproduce the final "Incoherence" result:

# 1. Download Planck SMICA map to data/raw/planck/smica.fits
# 2. Run the separation forensics script
python scripts/run_separation_forensics.py

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5. Acknowledgments

Data provided by the Planck Collaboration (2018 Release) and DESI (Data Release 1). Analysis performed using healpy and astropy.

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6. License

MIT