The burner's engineering gain, Q_E 0.63, is not a single calculation but a convergence: an independent evaluator computing the neutron budget from cross sections, partitioning fusion products by slowing-down theory, charging synchrotron, and deriving confinement from Pastukhov theory lands within 3.8% of the prior figure.
The prior model reached Q_E 0.657 without computing any of those four physics pieces. The new evaluator computes all four independently and reaches 0.632 — a genuine cross-check, not a re-run of the same assumptions. Supporting quantities agree too: central field within 1.0%, plasma volume within 0.6%.
A number reached two independent ways is far stronger than a number reached once. The 3.8% agreement on gain, from methods that share no assumptions, is what lets the burner treat Q_E 0.63 as robust while still correcting the supporting numbers the two methods disagreed on.
| Gain (independent) | Q_E 0.632 |
| Gain (prior) | Q_E 0.657 |
| Agreement | 3.8% |
| Independent pieces | neutron budget, product partition, synchrotron, confinement |
| Supporting agreement | field 1.0%, volume 0.6% |