Strong Interactions, Capillary Confinement, and Asymptotic Freedom in the Elastic Continuum (Paper 3)

AbstractThis paper presents a deterministic mechanical reduction of quantum chromodynamics(QCD) phenomenology to the continuum mechanics of an underlying elastic substrate (FieldDynamics, Document #0). Abstract SU (3)c color charges and eight massless gauge gluonsare shown to be unnecessary. We demonstrate that: (1) Quark Ontology and Solenoidal Y-Junction: Quarks are not point fermions, but three vortex arms of the nucleon cavitation cavity.Incompressible solenoidal kinematics (∇ · v = 0) organize the junction as an asymmetric Y-node: two symmetric inflow arms (Γu = Γ, quarks u1, u2) and one double-strength cumulativeoutflow arm (Γd = 2Γ, quark d). (2) Throat Overcriticality and Cleavage: The dischargethroat opens to rthroat = Rp/√3 ≈ 0.4858 fm, yielding cumulative stream speed vthroat = 2vp ≈2.370 c, which exceeds the substrate longitudinal acoustic barrier cL ≈ 1.355 c and driveshydrodynamic cleavage during decompression (β-decay). (3) Asymptotic Freedom (r → 0):Deep inelastic lepton scattering probes the interior cavitation void where substrate densityand shear modulus vanish identically (ρin ≡ 0, μ = 0). The absence of an elastic medium insidethe void removes shear stress between the arms, yielding free vortex ballistics (αs(Q2) → 0). (4)Capillary Confinement (r & 1 fm): Attempting to isolate an arm pulls a cylindrical cavitationchannel against ambient hydrostatic pressure μ0 ≈ 3.865 × 1035 Pa. The Cornell potentialV (r) = σr represents the linear work of cavitation. String tension is derived as σ = μ0Seff ≈143.3 kN ≡ 0.8942 GeV/fm (0.5% agreement with lattice QCD), where Seff = πR2p/6 combinessingle-arm topology (1/3) and linear force projection (cos 60◦ = 1/2). (5) Proton Landé Factorgp: Circulation invariants of the Y-junction yield bare factor g(0)p = 16/3 ≈ 5.3333 (4.5% fromCODATA 5.5857). Adding the boundary-layer self-induction correction αp/(2π) ≈ +4.81% closesthe divergence to 0.075% without constituent quark fitting parameters.