The Yang-Mills Mass Gap A Proof by Rank-Nullity C. M. Pompetzki The Caravan of Linear Algebraic Truth Dedicated to Jacques Tits (1930–2021)

The Yang-Mills Mass Gap A Proof by Rank-Nullity C. M. Pompetzki The Caravan of Linear Algebraic Truth January 2026 Dedicated to Jacques Tits (1930–2021) Abstract We prove the Yang-Mills mass gap. The electric Hamiltonian is a sum of Casimir operators. The kernel of a sum of positive operators is the intersection of their kernels. The intersection is one-dimensional (the constant function). By rank-nullity, the smallest nonzero eigenvalue is strictly positive. That is the mass gap. The proof is five lines of linear algebra.