CHICAGO — Source-sensitivity checks in the MQ galactic analysis examine how stellar-mass assumptions change predictions and residual trends. Substituting independently estimated WISE stellar masses shifts the predicted-to-observed velocity normalization. A negative marginal trend with galaxy velocity weakens or reverses, while conditional ordering persists in matched and multivariate controls.

The result matters because a galaxy’s ordinary-matter field is reconstructed from observations of stars and gas. A revised stellar-mass estimate changes that input even when the gravitational response law, gas contribution and kinematic target remain fixed. Figure 1 separates a source substitution from a genuinely new rotation-curve population test.

For the 60 highest-quality WISE-overlap galaxies within the stated inclination range, the manuscript reports a galaxy-level geometric MQ-to-observed velocity ratio changing from 0.9915 with the fiducial source to 1.0854 with the WISE source. The source substitution therefore changes the normalization materially; it is not simply a relabeling of the same prediction.

The change becomes much smaller in the nested gas-rich controls, where stellar normalization has less leverage. The reported ratios change from 0.9854 to 0.9886 in 19 gas-rich galaxies and from 1.0086 to 1.0034 in eight more strongly gas-dominated galaxies. These are source-stability diagnostics within overlapping samples, not three independent confirmations of MQ.

The remaining conditional pattern also needs to be reported. In the source-recomputed matched test, all ten higher-velocity members have lower MQ-to-observed normalizations than their paired lower-velocity partners. The source interpretation is therefore mixed. Stellar reconstruction changes the broad trend, but the stated controls do not remove every residual ordering.

Better agreement in a quality-selected subset does not establish that lower-quality discrepancies are observational errors. Persistent structure could reflect source reconstruction, the response law or other observational modeling. Likewise, a statistical association under controls does not by itself identify a causal correction to the theory.

The program identifies a next test using independently reconstructed radial stellar profiles for difficult dwarf systems, including DDO 50 and IC 1613. The source should be fixed before inspecting MQ residuals. Reduced discrepancies would help localize source dependence; coherent discrepancies surviving well-constrained inputs would put more direct pressure on the fixed galactic law.

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