Yang-Mills Mass Gap via 24D Octonion Jordan-Shadow Decomposition

Structural argument for the existence of a mass gap in quantum Yang-Mills theory with gauge group SU(3), using the 24D octonion Jordan-Shadow decomposition framework. SU(3) embeds as the stabilizer of e7 in Aut(O) = G2, and the Fano plane triple (4,5,7) hardwires TIME x UV_FREEDOM = MASS_GAP as a consequence of octonion algebra. Computational results show the e7 Jordan component grows monotonically with coupling constant (g=0: +0.13, g=5: +5.23), the mass gap direction exhibits IR attractor behavior, and the non-associativity of the (4,5,7) triple explains the failure of perturbative approaches. Builds on prior Zenodo DOIs 18690444, 18722487, 18809406, 18809716.