PAT-0280
Density Vacuum
A structural condition where a region expected to contain sufficient nodes, edges, coverage, or relationships falls below declared density thresholds.
Primary Lenses
Absence Lens
Detects structurally required elements that are missing from the observed structure.
Lens Application
The Absence Lens is a strong inspection mechanism for Density Vacuum because it focuses attention on structurally expected elements that are not observed. It helps compare declared density thresholds against missing nodes, weak coverage, absent links, or relationship gaps in the inspected region.
Inspect For
- Missing required nodes within the region
- Expected edges or relationships not present
- Coverage gaps below declared thresholds
- Sparse areas where structure should be denser
Avoid
Treat missing elements as inspection signals, not conclusive evidence that Density Vacuum is present.
Compression Lens
Reduces structural graphs into stable minimal representations for comparison, redundancy detection, and diffing.
Lens Application
The Compression Lens is a strong inspection mechanism for Density Vacuum because it removes redundant structure and exposes whether the remaining minimal graph still contains enough nodes, edges, and coverage. Sparse compressed forms can highlight where expected relationship density has collapsed or become uneven.
Inspect For
- Compressed regions with unusually few retained nodes or edges
- Missing links after redundant paths are removed
- Density drops between comparable graph segments
- Minimal representations that lose expected coverage
Avoid
Treat sparse compressed output as an inspection signal, not confirmation that Density Vacuum is present.
Secondary Lenses
Constraint Sufficiency Lens
Evaluates whether declared constraints are sufficient to eliminate structural degrees of freedom.
Lens Application
The Constraint Sufficiency Lens applies indirectly to Density Vacuum by testing whether constraints are specific enough to expose under-connected, under-covered, or weakly related areas. It does not directly measure density, but can reveal where missing constraint coverage allows structural gaps to remain ambiguous.
Inspect For
- Constraints that fail to require minimum node or edge coverage
- Regions where sparse relationships still satisfy declared rules
- Unconstrained degrees of freedom around expected coverage
- Thresholds implied but not explicitly declared
Avoid
Treat constraint insufficiency as a supporting inspection signal, not a density measurement or confirmation that Density Vacuum is present.
Primary Issue Matches
Diagnostic Area Has No Coverage
A known diagnostic area, failure mode, requirement, or review dimension has no Issue, check, rubric item, or workflow coverage.
Evaluation Rubric Has Coverage Gap
An evaluation rubric, grading standard, or review checklist leaves part of the required evaluation space uncovered.
Policy Area Has No Examples
A policy, rule, standard, or guidance area has no examples showing how it should apply to real cases.
Workflow Stage Has Too Few Checks
A workflow stage lacks enough checks, gates, criteria, or review conditions to safely support the work it controls.
Supporting Issue Matches
Answer Has No Traceable Source Link
The answer makes a claim, recommendation, citation, or factual statement without a source link or trace path that allows the user to verify where it came from.
Missing Required Fields
The AI returns structured output that omits fields required by the schema, workflow, parser, form, or downstream consumer.
Review Rubric Missing Required Criteria
A review rubric, grading rule, evaluation checklist, or classification standard lacks criteria required to make the review reliable.