Programmable Non-Abelian Braiding of Light States via Photonic Integrated Circuits

Significant — This work provides a contract-level certification overlay for programmable non-Abelian braiding of light states on photonic integrated circuits by converting “order matters” into a replayable, audited claim object rather than a visually persuasive map. The corridor is frozen via tokens for device identity, calibration snapshot, readout window, preprocessing policy, reconstruction gauge, and the declared word family; recognition is written as durable SEB prewrite/postwrite logs so translator dependence (reconstruction/denoising/gauge fixing) cannot be hidden; MAP1 enforces a branch map under tightening and requires sequence-swap falsifiers (AB vs BA and longer words) plus a disable-tuning null that forbids per-order retune between sequences. Outcomes are reported as promote, downgrade, refuse, or hold with reason tokens that isolate the dominant confounds in programmable PIC braiding claims (retune-between-orders, gauge slip, translator dependence, thermal cross-talk, metric non-robustness, channel dissent), preserving value through strong-to-weak downgrade without manufacturing promotion.