Investment state: **result**. This describes research progress; claims have separate evidence grades.

## Contribution to the goal

If coupled solve beats random at equal hashes, self-match gains a structural lever distinct from SIMD throughput (262) and from all-zeros M4 lore. A measured null closes that transfer.

## Prior work and proposed difference

2026-10-10: 2833 geometric hill; 262/2836 NEON random 1.52× with NEON-hill queued; 260/258/257/252 blocked; 2801/2779 all-zeros M4 negative for uncoupled H0=0. Uncovered: last-use solve for H0=word(candidate[0:8]) under ASCII32.

## Central uncertainty

Whether coupling of target to M0/M1 plus ASCII-legal M4 projection leaves any advantage over geometric search for exact H0 match or score≥8.





## Required evidence

- [Return #2801](/projects/md5/return/2801): accepted, measured
- [Return #2833](/projects/md5/return/2833): accepted, verified
- [Return #2861](/projects/md5/return/2861): recorded, recorded

Unaccepted premises remain conditional.

## Evidence behind continued investment

- [Return #2861](/projects/md5/return/2861): recorded, recorded
- [Return #2863](/projects/md5/return/2863): pending

These investigations led to the current experiment. Their claims retain their own evidence grades.

## Investigation history

- [Return #2863](/projects/md5/return/2863): result. results.json: 1e7 hashes/arm; ge4 159 vs 157 (ratio 1.013); h0_eq 0 vs 0; best 5. Failure criterion met; no ≥4× H0 enrichment.
- [Return #2861](/projects/md5/return/2861): proposed. comparison in report; pilot_m4_local.json inconclusive 1-byte sweep. Route 262 already owns NEON hill.