Nearby radio activity does not identify the best infrared counterpart
13 October 2026. The frozen three-case comparison is independently verified: 0/3 fixed best infrared records have a qualifying original MMB maser position within one arcsecond. None of the six retained infrared alternatives has any native catalogue maser position within that radius. The predefined projected- geometry criterion is not met. This is no physical starlessness result or exclusion of embedded protostars.
The first field has useful, separate positive context: historical radio maser 330.878-0.367 is 12.520 arcsec from the dust-clump centre, but 17.501 arcsec from the best infrared point. Regional molecular/radio activity cannot be assigned to that point merely because the region received a high clump rank.
Same cases, native coordinate fields
| Clump | Fixed best infrared record | Nearest native maser name | Point-to-maser, arcsec | Clump-centre-to-nearest-maser, arcsec |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| HIGALBM330.8814-0.3656 | SSTGLMC G330.8829-00.3661 | 330.878-0.367 | 17.501 | 12.520 |
| HIGALBM351.2258+0.6937 | SSTGLMC G351.2258+00.6940 | 351.242+0.670 | 104.881 | 103.458 |
| HIGALBM353.4272-0.3734 | SSTGLMC G353.4273-00.3723 | 353.410-0.360 | 76.937 | 79.066 |
For the third field, the distinct red alternative’s nearest radio record is 81.837 arcsec away. It is still separate from the blue best counterpart and its time-series measurements; neither gains a close maser association. Every alternative, nearest radio record, native flag and pair within 1/15/30 arcsec is retained in the source assessment.
The earlier cone is bound by its original query registration; this metadata is separately identified as post-read interpretive context.
The first radio record is native ordinal string VIII/96/catalog.dat:000307 in the
hash-bound historical catalogue, at literal J2000 coordinates
RA 242.582500000 deg, Dec -52.102194444 deg. Its original
reference field is retained. Radio positions describe emitting gas; ordinal/name
aliases are not identifiers of independently confirmed stars. Epoch-dependent
activity, physical membership and stellar identity are not measured here.
Post-read coverage qualification and interpretation
The 12.520-arcsec first-field offset is just outside the earlier 12-arcsec GLIMPSE query around the clump centre. This is a post-read coverage observation, not a new primary criterion, changed search radius or substitute source. The old catalogue selection/negative gates remain frozen. A catalogue counterpart outside that original cone was not tested in the earlier infrared selection, and this unit has not acquired one. The first field has a nearby published radio marker; we have not established that it belongs to this Hi-GAL clump or caused its molecular activity or the matched infrared point’s temporal measurements.
Neither the 15/30-arcsec contextual circles nor a large molecular beam is a physical clump boundary. This potential confusion explanation still needs a separate source-specific test. Positional proximity alone cannot attribute emission, establish a star’s evolutionary stage or count a discovery.
Radio absence at an infrared point does not exclude young stars: the historical maser sample traces a selected activity window, has finite sensitivity, and gas can be displaced from the star. This 707-record I–IV snapshot is not all modern masers. Blank position flags supplied only the registered geometric eligibility; no quoted position-error or source-epoch contract was available. We performed no frame/proper-motion transformation, calibrated probability or parental-velocity membership comparison. Native velocity/flux/reference fields remain exact context.
Independent verification and resources
The protocol, code, exact cases and synthetic controls were frozen at
bc23a8c7249088f01583ebbc0f678b627f31be83 before any native catalogue position readout. One public static-file
GET returned 69,855 bytes / 707 records, with no coordinate query/upload,
retry, redirect, image/cube request, paid compute or new survey. Every registered
existing input remains hash-identical. The terminal NEOWISE request, N20 and
c6828 remain closed; none was restarted or repaired by this radio comparison.
The worker used Astropy angles and separations. The independent checker imports no worker/Astropy code: direct raw slices, Decimal sexagesimal conversion and vector cross-product distances recomputed all 707 records and 6,363 angular pairs, native flags/fields, nearest/radius lists and the primary decision. Maximum coordinate difference is 1.14e-13 degree, a software consistency value, not scientific positional accuracy.
All four guarded stages (synthetic registration controls, acquisition, readout and independent check) exited zero without a resource stop, each in about one second, with at least 62.40 GiB observed free disk. Their short lifetimes mean RSS samples miss possible transient peaks; do not claim small actual peak memory from them. Each stage is below 1 MiB and the complete code/data/report/receipt packet below 4 MiB. Original inputs are preserved.
Evidence: frozen protocol, registration, complete original catalogue, all parsed native fields, source assessment, independent check, final checkpoint. Primary schema/reference sources are linked in the frozen protocol; original names/flags and repeated native instances remain intact.
Position against the full goal and stop
The measured conclusion is source-specific: nearby historical radio-marker context in the first field does not coincide with its best infrared record at the frozen scale. The other best/alternative points also lack such a match. This qualifies the use of coarse molecular activity and clump scores as apparent support for a particular point source. It supplies no independent held-out youth label, physical class or physical negative. MMB references and case selection are consumed, and the global 19,328-parent/19,066-unknown ledger remains unchanged.
All original models and gates stay fixed: embedding 14/27 versus nonlinear 15/27 at 18 reviews on consumed chemistry proxies; failed original Spitzer 0/3, cadence-majority 3/27 and uncertainty 333/800 gates. The new radio criterion is distinct from them. Infrared occurrence remains unmeasured, hypothetical 814 independent-bin support unvalidated, and 9–25%/45–55% scenarios descriptive sensitivity rather than confidence bounds or lifetimes. No new star, stellar birth, physical precision/recall or robust detector is established.
This unit stops with its verified projected comparison and qualifications. No expanded infrared cone, source substitution, relaxed match/flag criterion, new fit or automatic successor experiment follows. The full goal stays active and unmet. Results are local until a separate publication/deployment receipt exists; no private Atlas action is authorized.