Reframes the conventional question. Discharges naturally follow the E
field gradient; branching arises from specific randomizing mechanisms
(low frequency cooling reset, simultaneous multi-channel inception,
inter-pulse memory erasure, stochastic perturbations). QCW eliminates
the randomizers, revealing the default straight-line behavior.
Insight from external reviewer discussion.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>