Experimental Collapse in Virophysics: Protocol-Resolved Observation, Inference, and Plaque-Assay Blindness

Fuente: arXiv
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Autore principale: Kleess, Lillian St.
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2026
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author Kleess, Lillian St.
author_facet Kleess, Lillian St.
contents Virological measurements are often treated as reports of virion structure, mechanics, dielectric response, infectivity, or titer. In practice, an experiment observes a protocol-conditioned projection of a richer latent virion--environment ensemble. This paper defines this process as experimental collapse within protocol-resolved virophysics. Its central object is the null-inclusive observation operator $P_{\mathrm{obs},t}^{\varnothing}(\,\cdot\mid E\,) = \mathcal{M}_{E,t}^{\varnothing}P_{\mathrm{ref},t}$, which maps a reference latent ensemble to the observed ensemble generated by protocol $E$, including null outcomes. The formulation separates latent-state transformation, detection weighting, readout, and non-observation, making protocol effects explicit components rather than bias terms. The framework introduces protocol-conditioned latent ensembles, collapse functionals, protocol blindness, observation equivalence, Fisher-information observability, inverse inference, and multi-protocol consistency. It identifies collapse mechanisms including preparation, surface immobilization, mechanical loading, field steering, medium filtering, amplification, censoring, and detection thresholds. As a worked example, the plaque assay estimates an effective protocol-conditioned infectious concentration $Λ_{\mathrm{PFU}}=\int_Ψπ_{\mathrm{PFU}}(x;E_{\mathrm{PFU}})n_{\mathrm{ref}}(x),dx$, rather than total particle concentration. This recovers the Poisson plaque-count model and PFU titer formula in the dilute regime; extensions to overdispersion, zero inflation, plaque merging, endpoint dilution, neutralization, and morphology-augmented readouts recast deviations as protocol-conditioned information. Thus, virological data are outputs of explicit protocol kernels, clarifying what measurements report, miss, and how complementary assays can infer hidden latent virion structures.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2605_27928
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Experimental Collapse in Virophysics: Protocol-Resolved Observation, Inference, and Plaque-Assay Blindness
Kleess, Lillian St.
Biological Physics
Biomolecules
Virological measurements are often treated as reports of virion structure, mechanics, dielectric response, infectivity, or titer. In practice, an experiment observes a protocol-conditioned projection of a richer latent virion--environment ensemble. This paper defines this process as experimental collapse within protocol-resolved virophysics. Its central object is the null-inclusive observation operator $P_{\mathrm{obs},t}^{\varnothing}(\,\cdot\mid E\,) = \mathcal{M}_{E,t}^{\varnothing}P_{\mathrm{ref},t}$, which maps a reference latent ensemble to the observed ensemble generated by protocol $E$, including null outcomes. The formulation separates latent-state transformation, detection weighting, readout, and non-observation, making protocol effects explicit components rather than bias terms. The framework introduces protocol-conditioned latent ensembles, collapse functionals, protocol blindness, observation equivalence, Fisher-information observability, inverse inference, and multi-protocol consistency. It identifies collapse mechanisms including preparation, surface immobilization, mechanical loading, field steering, medium filtering, amplification, censoring, and detection thresholds. As a worked example, the plaque assay estimates an effective protocol-conditioned infectious concentration $Λ_{\mathrm{PFU}}=\int_Ψπ_{\mathrm{PFU}}(x;E_{\mathrm{PFU}})n_{\mathrm{ref}}(x),dx$, rather than total particle concentration. This recovers the Poisson plaque-count model and PFU titer formula in the dilute regime; extensions to overdispersion, zero inflation, plaque merging, endpoint dilution, neutralization, and morphology-augmented readouts recast deviations as protocol-conditioned information. Thus, virological data are outputs of explicit protocol kernels, clarifying what measurements report, miss, and how complementary assays can infer hidden latent virion structures.
title Experimental Collapse in Virophysics: Protocol-Resolved Observation, Inference, and Plaque-Assay Blindness
topic Biological Physics
Biomolecules
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.27928