We reformulate aspects of Quantum Chromodynamics within the fractal-spectral framework. The central proposal is that quark confinement and gravity share a common origin: the temporal flow rate field τ (x) whose gradients produce both gravitational attraction (1/r falloff for color-singlet sources) and confinement (linear growth for non-singlet color sources, where non-abelian flux-tube dynamics concentrate the τ-gradient along the quark-antiquark axis). The effective quark-antiquark potential combines a short-distance Coulomb term, a linear confining term σr, and oscillatory fractal corrections from the texture tower with spacing (√2) ^−n. The string tension σ is expressed structurally in terms of the τ-field gradient within the flux tube; its derivation from first principles remains an open problem and is explicitly flagged as such. Gluons are reinterpreted as quantized modes of vibrational coupling between quarks at each fractal level, with kinetic weights 2^−n inherited from the fractal-temporal Lagrangian. The QCD beta function receives fractal modifications that preserve asymptotic freedom while producing log-periodic oscillations in the running of αₛ with the same universal log-frequency ωf = 2π/ln√2 ≈ 18. 1 predicted independently in the electroweak sector. This cross-sector universality of ωf is a distinctive falsification criterion: if the frequency differs between sectors, the framework is ruled out. The primary experimental test is the glueball mass ratio prediction M₁/M₀ = √2 ≈ 1. 414. Existing lattice QCD data (Morningstar-Peardon 1999) gives m₂++/m₀++ = 1. 39 ± 0. 05, a 2% match that is encouraging but not conclusive pending experimental identification of glueball states. Additional predictions include (√2) ⁿ-spaced fine structure in quarkonium excitations and log-periodic modulations in αₛ detectable at precision colliders. Open problems are stated explicitly: first-principles derivation of σ, computation of the fractal beta function coefficients, derivation of the color-singlet constraint from the τ-field dynamics, connection to the Yang-Mills mass gap problem, and the Strong CP problem.
Thierry Marechal (Sun,) studied this question.