SCFL Empirical Foundations of Tier 1-3 Measurement Framework

This preprint archive documents the empirical and methodological foundations of the Standard Coherence Fidelity Layer (SCFL), a constrained measurement framework for detecting structural degradation and directional stress propagation in complex institutional systems. The archive contains three formal empirical specifications: • Foundational SCFL Drift Framework — defining coherence drift as measurable state-space deformation observable prior to overt failure events. • Tier 2: Seam Ripple Operator — specifying a falsifiable, episode-bounded lag-transmission operator for detecting directional propagation along a predefined institutional state chain during acute stress. • Tier 3: Cascade Vulnerability Specification — defining cross-institution transmission and tail-amplification tests under shared stress conditions. Across tiers, the framework enforces predefined topology, frozen sign expectations, ex-ante lag governance, null-model construction, placebo controls, multiple-testing discipline, and explicit falsification criteria. The materials are released as methodological preprints for timestamped archival disclosure and research review. The framework does not assert universal laws or predictive guarantees; it defines constrained statistical operators for testing whether structured propagation exceeds dynamics consistent with simultaneous response to common shocks.