Non-Local Recognition Phases and the Massless-Graviton Target

A phase can depend on an entire record history and still have exactly the one-loop response of a local action. At zero deficit, a twice differentiable phase that vanishes identically there enters the Gaussian operator only through its deficit slope, the geometric variation of that slope, and its even deficit kernel. An odd phase with the Regge slope therefore has the native one-loop remainder. The specified face-holonomy phase is exactly the native phase under its posting and face-count readings. Blocking supplies a different non-local construction. At fixed fine-scale damping, edge-record blocking collapses the normalized inverse propagator, but that order also excludes hypercube block averages and does not decide the physical route. With damping fixed in coarse units, a proved lower bound at identified κ = 1 distinguishes the two: an edge-record zone average grows at least as 2ᵏ, while hypercube averages remain bounded. This result is an averaged obstruction, not the still-open pointwise flow statement. For the specified dyadic Kuhn refinement, every nonzero equal-piece additive linear face reading fails gauge covariance; the oriented sum factors through edge records. The phase and coarse-fixed blocking proofs are complete with independent verification pending. The remaining target is a derived action with the Regge classical limit and a vanishing ordered transverse-traceless remainder; exact vertex symmetry is a sufficient structural route, also motivated by a separate classical second-order obstruction. Companion to Quantum Gravity from the Recognition Ledger (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23839819). Preprint of the Recognition Physics Institute, 10 pages. Not peer reviewed.