Definition: Five audit slots

For a target requiring a perturbative field-theoretic construction, the five audit slots are:

Q1: Gauge-fixed covariance.

Field multiplet, gauge fermion or other fixing prescription, auxiliary and ghost sectors, full coupled quadratic operator, its domain, Green inverses, causal distribution, and component normalizations.

Q2: State or parametrix.

An identified two-point matrix or parametrix with the singular, field-equation, symmetry, and tail properties needed by the target. A physical expectation additionally requires an actual state on the relevant physical algebra and its positivity.

Q3: Products and counterterm class.

A realization of the required Wick, time-ordered, retarded, pullback, and composite operations; the admissible local, boundary, switch, and insertion corrections; their images in the observable construction; and the normalization convention.

Q4: Controlled remainder and limit.

The retained formal order, the topology of every claimed limit, and estimates for the complete remainder on the declared tests. Formal truncation and numerical or regulator error are distinct.

Q5: Retained-order gauge identity.

A defined gauge differential or Ward operation on the constructed domain, an evaluated complete breaking term, and a proved identity or admissible repair at the retained order.