TQNT-V5.18 — Rigorous derivation of the P22 nucleation boost: an honest null result against JWST 'impossible early galaxies'

TQNT-V5.18 derivation of the P22 nucleation boost on the high-z halo mass function (HMF) from the closed-form V5 §16.4 nucleation rate Gamma = Gamma_0 exp(eta * xi), with xi = |grad Omega²| * lambda_C / Omega² and Omega² = 1 + kappa_g * |Psi|² (P5 emergent metric). Honest null result: rigorous evaluation at z=10, M_h = 10^10 M_sun gives xi = 4.3e-81 and boost = 1.000000 — indistinguishable from LambdaCDM at 81 decades. The microscopic value of kappa_g (proportional to alpha_EM^18 * lambda_C(p) ~ 3.13e-53 m, derived first-principles in V5.5 step 6) is mathematically too small to produce any observable boost on cosmological scales. This result invalidates the casual claim that V5 P22 resolves the JWST 'impossible early galaxies' crisis. Combined with the systematic-audit literature 2024-2026 (Krishnan & Abazajian 2026 PRD 113, 083007 and others) showing that the observational 'crisis' is largely a measurement artifact (median revision -1.5 dex), no new V5 physics is needed. Scientific value: confirms V5 internal consistency, formally constrains the JWST channel, and clarifies the regime where V5 IS observationally discriminative (astrophysically formed compact objects, cf. V5.19). Commit 92bcb7f. 20/20 pytest tests pass; suite 1152 passed, 0 failed. Companion: V5p19 catalog (10.5281/zenodo.20708582). Project monograph: 10.5281/zenodo.19131538.