33.56 turns the proton near field into a retainable OAM sign-rule audit: with beam geometry, impact parameter, energy, polarization, and phase-sign conventions frozen, a proton target must show a handedness-linked phase shift Δφ whose sign reverses synchronously when orbital angular momentum flips between +ℓ and −ℓ, keeps a stable response within a preregistered linear window, shows a mirror or complementary sign pattern for the electron control under the same aperture, and stays clean against empty-trap, weak-coupling, ℓ = 0, label-permutation, and reference-definition nulls; under V02/V08/V09-compatible retain, this remains only one proton near-field sign-rule ledger rather than a full proton-structure ontology verdict.
Use this section as a compact machine-readable EFT reference.
33.56 turns the proton near field into a decisive sign-rule court. The admissible claim is not that any chiral probe says something deep about proton ontology, but that a frozen orbital-angular-momentum setup can read one reversible rule: switching from +ℓ to −ℓ must switch the sign of the measured phase shift if the outward-texture claim is real.
Measurement locks onto four objects: the phase shift Δφ for each handedness setting, the flip success rate Sφ across repeated switches, the existence of a preregistered linear or near-linear response window in |ℓ| or calibrated coupling strength, and the proton–electron mirror or complementary sign relation under the same aperture. Both sign and amplitude must be auditable, not merely visible by eye.
The workflow is designed so the sign conclusion cannot be tuned after inspection. A stable single-particle environment is locked first; OAM modes are switched quickly and monitored for purity; geometry, impact parameter, energy, and polarization are frozen; and the full phase-sign chain is fixed with an independent reference definition running in parallel. Handedness labels remain blinded until phase extraction and quality control are complete, while proton/electron runs and null conditions proceed in parallel.
Controls must show that the apparatus can read a real handedness-dependent phase response and also refuse fake ones. A known chiral scatterer or phase element validates the sign-readout chain, while the ℓ = 0 mode, empty-trap condition, weak-coupling far-field regime, label permutations, and reference-definition robustness checks must collapse any candidate proton signal if it is only instrument chirality or propagation bias.
Support requires a stable reversible sign flip between +ℓ and −ℓ inside the preregistered window, a calibratable amplitude curve that reproduces across batches, and an electron mirror or complementary response while null tests stay quiet. Falsification follows from no sign flip, an unstable sign chain under small reference or alignment changes, no mirror relation in the control, or null conditions that produce the same-grade signal. The named adversaries are OAM mode leakage, alignment drift, and stray electromagnetic or reference-phase drift.
So the chapter closes only one retained proton near-field OAM ledger aligned with V02-2.21 and the V08/V09 laboratory-audit lane. It may not become a general proton ontology verdict or a free-standing chirality doctrine. Its clean onward value is to hand a frozen sign-rule interface to 33.57–33.59.