The Fine-Structure Constant from Discrete Hodge Theory

Preprint (February 2026). We present a self-contained derivation of the electromagnetic fine-structure constant within a discrete Hodge-theoretic framework. Starting from d^2 = 0 and explicit additional structural assumptions, we obtain the parameter chain (z, k, Q, N, δ) = (4, 1/√2, 2/3, 3, 2/9) and compute α^{-1} = 137.0359 (0.79 ppm) at second order. Each step is explicitly labeled by type (T: theorem, S: structural identification, M: model-level, T|conditional). Falsification criteria are stated. Reproducibility: all calculations can be verified without proprietary software. Human–machine workflow (disclosure): during development, an internal analytics engine (AQEA CRONOS) was used for exploratory searches and consistency checks across candidate relations. Large language models were used as non-author assistants for editorial and algebraic cross-checking; this does not constitute formal machine-checked proof.