DIPS: The Channel Configuration Is the Quantum Assignment

A source of directed channels is not already a binary selection problem. An analyst who asks which typed links to keep under a constraint needs identifiable variables and a selection energy E(X). The native writing of that energy is a quadratic unconstrained binary optimization (QUBO), which a quantum annealer accepts. Prior work on annealing assumes the QUBO is already given, so the gap is the translation from the source, not more qubits. The annealer is required by two-level emergence, not by problem size, because channel configurations cannot be scored and stacked from parts. The object is a typed channel, and that configuration is the quantum assignment: a binary vector X of identified links, whose source figures are weights, not the assignment. This paper uses sector accounts, which become rank-1 DIPS (Dynamic Identifiable Spatial Links), then a companion C and E(X). Discrete tags become logical variables; flows, stocks, and a memory parameter φ enter as coefficients. The companion evolution is classical; only inverse combinatorial selection is posed for a quantum device. Three controlled examples show why the search has to be over whole configurations. Topology alone changes stability at fixed strength, and two links with no marginal effect jointly open a spectral gap of 0.9. Lag-block swaps move ρ by 0.002875; an equal-strength cycle swap leaves ρ fixed while C moves by 2.082066. A synthetic instance reaches E_min = −148.381958 (p = 0.009). Eurostat Germany and U.S. Treasury files show that the procedure runs on published accounts. A counterpart extract supplies the first data-driven E(X), searched classically. The Nyquist–Shannon lag bound pins lag depth before coding. Listing 2⁵⁰ states is about 250 years; at M = 50 a classical search of E(X) took 0.15 s. The paper does not argue that annealing is faster than classical search. No device run is reported.