Spectral origin of the topological gap exponent d + η: mechanism, kernel, decomposition, and scope

The topological gap $Δ$ -- the excess $H_1$ total persistence of a critical point cloud over a density-matched null -- scales as $Δ\sim L^{d+η}$. We derive this analytically: the spectral integral $I(α) = \sum_{k\neq 0} S_{\mathrm{conn}}(k)\,|k|^α$ scales as $L^{2-α-η}$ when IR-dominated, giving $I(