Abstract
A partial-transpose image of the positive-semidefinite cone supplies an established alternative ordered presentation on a fixed composite carrier. Transporting both the cone and the processes preserves an abstract equivalence, whereas fixing the process representation can discriminate the two orders. We study the iteration of one specified right-argument transpose rule on supplied finite qubit carriers. With three standard leaves, its two bracketings have different cones, so no linear identification fixing every product operator pointwise can make them agree. Subset-orientation labels give an explicit repair. Relative to a separately supplied tensor-closed standard process category, we construct the raw tensor of arrows, associator, symmetry, asymmetric unit maps, and quasi-inverse tensorator, and prove symmetric monoidal equivalence by faithful transport. Complementary subsets define the same isolated cone, but their identification is not a congruence for the raw tensor product. At fixed rank, a precisely defined two-lift groupoid is a split central Z₂ extension; its odd lift is not an ordinary completely positive endomorphism at fixed representatives. A five-qubit example then separates matched reference transport, a fixed calibrated anchor, and an effect-based quotient. The latter loses a linear subspace rather than only a two-point transpose orbit and is preserved only by histories satisfying the standard kernel-invariance condition. A named real local unitary connects the anchor pair, while a real controlled-NOT (CNOT) gate exposes the limitation of an enlarged single-anchor history class. The contribution is an assumption-controlled analysis of one finite composition rule and its interfaces, not a new general coherence, orientation, or resource theorem, and not a derivation of quantum theory from primitive complementarity.
Selected supporting statements and finite witnesses are accompanied by a partial Lean 4.19.0 formalization. A recorded local build and type/axiom audit accepted 117 theorem declarations and 57 definitions or abbreviations. The full symmetric monoidal category and equivalence in Theorems 4.5 and 4.6, and other explicitly listed manuscript links, remain incompletely formalized. The public source supplement also includes three preserved exact Python implementations, expected results, pinned dependencies and claim-to-code maps. Packaging and source/log audits are not another Lean compiler run or external peer review.
The public evidence selection preserves the successful type/axiom output and the failure/success chronology. Machine-local account paths are omitted from derived run summaries, and one failed-build diagnostic has an explicitly normalized home-directory prefix. Accepted Lean proof sources remain unchanged; private review archives and original machine-local receipts are not public upload files.
Where it sits in the release
Opens the composition-and-cells branch, distinguishing a coherent change of presentation from a physically admitted process. Selected statements carry a partial Lean 4.19.0 formalization; the full monoidal equivalence of Theorems 4.5–4.6 remains incompletely formalized.
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