diff --git a/.github/workflows/build-papers.yml b/.github/workflows/build-papers.yml
index 16f99ed..fc33826 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/build-papers.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/build-papers.yml
@@ -24,21 +24,51 @@ jobs:
         latexmk_use_xelatex: false
         args: -pdf -interaction=nonstopmode -halt-on-error
 
+    - name: Install LaTeX tools for arXiv packaging
+      run: sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install -y latexmk texlive-latex-recommended texlive-latex-extra texlive-fonts-recommended
+
+    - name: Build arXiv tarball
+      run: |
+        chmod +x aion-holography/scripts/make-arxiv.sh
+        SKIP_LATEXMK=1 aion-holography/scripts/make-arxiv.sh
+
+    - name: Verify arXiv tarball exists
+      if: success()
+      run: |
+        if [ -s ax.tar ]; then
+          echo "✅ ax.tar found; proceeding to upload"
+          ls -lh ax.tar
+        else
+          echo "❌ ax.tar missing or empty; make-arxiv.sh likely failed" >&2
+          exit 1
+        fi
+
     - name: Upload PDF as artifact
+      if: success()
       uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4
       with:
         name: holography-paper-pdf
         path: aion-holography/main.pdf
         retention-days: 30
 
+    - name: Upload arXiv tarball as artifact
+      if: success()
+      uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4
+      with:
+        name: holography-paper-arxiv
+        path: ax.tar
+        retention-days: 30
+
     - name: Rename PDF for release
-      if: github.event_name == 'release'
+      if: success() && github.event_name == 'release'
       run: |
         cd aion-holography
         cp main.pdf computational-holography-rmg.pdf
 
     - name: Upload PDF to release
-      if: github.event_name == 'release'
+      if: success() && github.event_name == 'release'
       uses: softprops/action-gh-release@v2
       with:
-        files: aion-holography/computational-holography-rmg.pdf
+        files: |
+          aion-holography/computational-holography-rmg.pdf
+          ax.tar
diff --git a/.github/workflows/release-paper.yml b/.github/workflows/release-paper.yml
index e46c804..190b7ea 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/release-paper.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/release-paper.yml
@@ -25,6 +25,22 @@ jobs:
           latexmk_use_xelatex: false
           args: -pdf -interaction=nonstopmode -halt-on-error
 
+      - name: Install LaTeX tools for arXiv packaging
+        run: sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install -y latexmk texlive-latex-recommended texlive-latex-extra texlive-fonts-recommended
+
+      - name: Build arXiv tarball
+        run: SKIP_LATEXMK=1 aion-holography/scripts/make-arxiv.sh
+
+      - name: Validate arXiv tarball
+        run: |
+          if [ -s ax.tar ]; then
+            echo "✅ ax.tar found and non-empty"
+            ls -lh ax.tar
+          else
+            echo "❌ ax.tar missing or empty after make-arxiv.sh" >&2
+            exit 1
+          fi
+
       - name: Set PDF path
         id: pdf
         run: |
@@ -41,6 +57,7 @@ jobs:
 
       - name: Create GitHub Release
         id: create_release
+        if: success()
         uses: softprops/action-gh-release@v2
         with:
           tag_name: ${{ github.ref_name }}
@@ -50,5 +67,6 @@ jobs:
           generate_release_notes: true
           files: |
             AIon-Computational-Holography-${{ github.ref_name }}.pdf
+            ax.tar
         env:
           GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
diff --git a/aion-holography/determinism_confluence.tex b/aion-holography/determinism_confluence.tex
index 1aa08a8..819e852 100644
--- a/aion-holography/determinism_confluence.tex
+++ b/aion-holography/determinism_confluence.tex
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ \section{Determinism and Confluence}
 \label{sec:determinism}
 
 Throughout this section we work under the standing assumptions
-summarised in \cref{sec:assumptions}.
+summarised in the Standing Assumptions section.
 
 We sketch the concurrency discipline, define independence, and state the
 main confluence theorems for tick-level execution, working with RMG
diff --git a/aion-holography/dpo_rmg.tex b/aion-holography/dpo_rmg.tex
index 518a75f..f394a73 100644
--- a/aion-holography/dpo_rmg.tex
+++ b/aion-holography/dpo_rmg.tex
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 \section{DPO Rewriting on Recursive Metagraphs}
 \label{sec:dpo-rmg}
 
-We briefly review double--pushout with interfaces (DPOI) rewriting on
+We briefly review double-pushout with interfaces (DPOI) rewriting on
 typed open graphs and lift it to RMG states.
 
 \subsection{Typed open graphs and DPOI rules}
diff --git a/aion-holography/intro.tex b/aion-holography/intro.tex
index 67a2842..4fbe1b7 100644
--- a/aion-holography/intro.tex
+++ b/aion-holography/intro.tex
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ \section{Introduction}
 \label{sec:intro}
 
 Modern computation is built on mutable state and loosely specified
-concurrency.  As systems become distributed, multi-core, and
+concurrency. As systems become distributed, multicore, and
 AI-mediated, this leads to nondeterminism, opaque failure modes,
 unreproducible behavior, and fundamentally incomplete provenance.
 
@@ -22,13 +22,13 @@ \section{Introduction}
     (\cref{thm:tick-confluence,thm:two-plane,thm:global}); and
   \item the \emph{entire} interior evolution of a computation is stored
     in a compact \emph{provenance payload} attached to a single edge,
-    providing an information-complete ``holographic'' encoding.
+    yielding an information-complete holographic encoding.
 \end{itemize}
 
-The technical starting point is algebraic graph transformation using the
-double--pushout (DPO) approach in adhesive categories, together with the
-Recursive Metagraph (RMG) object model we define in Section~\ref{sec:rmg}.
-We extend this setting with:
+Our technical starting point is algebraic graph transformation via
+double-pushout (DPO) graph rewriting in adhesive categories. We pair this with
+the Recursive Metagraph (RMG) object model introduced in
+Section~\ref{sec:rmg}. We extend this setting with:
 
 \begin{enumerate}[leftmargin=*]
   \item a precise notion of RMG state and its category;
@@ -36,9 +36,10 @@ \section{Introduction}
     attachment--then--skeleton publication, together with
     confluence results: tick-level determinism and two-plane
     commutation (Theorems~\ref{thm:tick-confluence} and
-    \ref{thm:two-plane}), and, under standard rewrite-theory
-    hypotheses, global confluence (Theorem~\ref{thm:global});
-  \item a provenance payload calculus giving \emph{computational
+    \ref{thm:two-plane}), and---under the standing assumptions and
+    standard rewrite-theoretic conditions---global confluence
+    (Theorem~\ref{thm:global});
+  \item a provenance payload calculus yielding \emph{computational
     holography};
   \item an MDL-based quasi-pseudometric on observers, the \emph{rulial
     distance}, and a correspondence between RMG derivations and
@@ -46,12 +47,14 @@ \section{Introduction}
     Ruliad.
 \end{enumerate}
 
-We deliberately keep the system-level \AION{} stack\footnote{%
+We keep the system-level \AION{} stack\footnote{% 
 Pronounced ``eye-ON'' (rhymes with \emph{aeon}), with stress on the second syllable.}
-(AIONOS, Echo, Wesley, etc.) mostly offstage in this paper, mentioning
-it only to motivate the mathematics.  The companion ``\COMPUTER{}''
-paper will build on these results to define the full machine model and
-operating system.
+(AIONOS, Echo, Wesley, etc.) largely offstage, mentioning it only to
+motivate the mathematical structure; we assume only that implementations
+respect the axioms and invariants stated in Sections~\ref{sec:rmg}--\ref{sec:discussion},
+with scheduling, representation, and persistence details intentionally
+out of scope. A companion ``\COMPUTER{}'' paper will build on these
+results to define the full machine model and operating system.
 
 \medskip
 \noindent
@@ -63,18 +66,19 @@ \section{Introduction}
     deterministic semantics independent of scheduler serialization
     order;
   \item \emph{Two-plane commutation} (Theorem~\ref{thm:two-plane}):
-    attachment and skeleton updates can be applied in either order up to
-    isomorphism, via a fibration structure;
+    attachment and skeleton updates commute up to isomorphism;
   \item \emph{Worldline uniqueness} (Corollary~\ref{cor:worldline-uniqueness}):
-    global uniqueness of complete derivation worldlines up to typed
-    open graph isomorphism, extending per-tick commutation to
-    scheduler-independent whole runs;
+    under the standing assumptions (tick confluence, two-plane
+    commutation, conditional global confluence, and holography), the
+    boundary data $(S_0,P)$ determines the interior derivation uniquely
+    up to typed open graph isomorphism, extending per-tick commutation
+    to whole-run semantics;
   \item \emph{Computational holography} (Theorem~\ref{thm:holography}):
     the boundary data $(S_0,P)$ is information-complete with respect to
     the interior evolution, enabling reconstruction of the full
     derivation volume;
   \item \emph{Rulial distance} (Theorem~\ref{thm:rulial-triangle}):
-    an MDL-based quasi-pseudometric on observers that quantifies the
-    complexity of translating between different views of the same
-    computation.
+    the triangle-inequality property of an MDL-based quasi-pseudometric
+    on observers, capturing the complexity of translating between
+    different computational views.
 \end{enumerate}
diff --git a/aion-holography/main.tex b/aion-holography/main.tex
index b25ce4c..53ee210 100644
--- a/aion-holography/main.tex
+++ b/aion-holography/main.tex
@@ -68,21 +68,21 @@
 \input{titlepage}
 
 \begin{abstract}
-We develop a formal model of \emph{computational holography}: a way of
-representing a computation so that its entire interior evolution is
-encoded on the ``boundary''---the provenance payload on a single
-recursive metagraph edge.  Building on double--pushout graph rewriting
-in adhesive categories, we define Recursive Metagraphs (RMGs), give a
-deterministic concurrent operational semantics, prove tick-level
-confluence and a two-plane commutation theorem, and state conditions for
-global confluence.  We then introduce provenance payloads and show how
-they provide an information-complete, holographic encoding of a
-computation's history.  Finally, we define an MDL-based \emph{rulial
-distance} between observers, relate RMG dynamics to multiway systems and
-the Ruliad, and outline how this structure underlies the \AION{}
-\COMPUTER{}, a provenance-native computational model with deterministic,
-confluent tick semantics and a quasi-pseudometric geometry on
-observers.
+This paper develops a formal model of \emph{computational holography}: 
+representing a computation so that its entire interior evolution 
+is encoded on the boundary—specifically, the provenance payload of 
+a single recursive metagraph edge. We build on double-pushout (DPO) graph 
+rewriting in adhesive categories to define Recursive Metagraphs (RMGs), 
+give a deterministic concurrent operational semantics, and prove 
+tick-level confluence together with a two-plane commutation theorem. 
+We also identify conditions for global confluence. Incorporating 
+provenance payloads yields an information-complete, holographic 
+encoding of computational history. Finally, we define an MDL-based 
+\emph{rulial distance} between observers, relate RMG dynamics to multiway 
+systems and the Ruliad, and outline how this structure supports the 
+\AION{} \COMPUTER{}: a provenance-native computational model with 
+deterministic tick semantics and a quasi-pseudometric 
+geometry on observers.
 \end{abstract}
 
 \clearpage
diff --git a/aion-holography/scripts/make-arxiv.sh b/aion-holography/scripts/make-arxiv.sh
index fb8364e..c4e3f1e 100755
--- a/aion-holography/scripts/make-arxiv.sh
+++ b/aion-holography/scripts/make-arxiv.sh
@@ -17,26 +17,33 @@ ROOT="$(cd "$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")/../.." && pwd)"
 SRC="${ROOT}/aion-holography"
 OUT="${ROOT}/ax.tar"
 
-echo "==> Building PDF to refresh main.bbl"
 cd "${SRC}"
-latexmk -pdf main.tex >/dev/null
+if [[ "${SKIP_LATEXMK:-0}" == "1" ]]; then
+  echo "==> Skipping latexmk (SKIP_LATEXMK=1); assuming main.bbl is current"
+else
+  echo "==> Building PDF to refresh main.bbl"
+  latexmk -pdf main.tex >/dev/null
+fi
 
 echo "==> Assembling arXiv payload"
 WORKDIR="$(mktemp -d "${ROOT}/arxiv.XXXXXX")"
 trap 'rm -rf "${WORKDIR}"' EXIT
 
-# Copy only the needed files.
-rsync -a --prune-empty-dirs \
-  --include 'Makefile' \
-  --include '*.tex' \
-  --include 'main.bbl' \
-  --exclude '*' \
-  "${SRC}/" "${WORKDIR}/"
+# Copy only the needed files into a flat layout (arXiv requires no subdirs).
+find "${SRC}" -type f \( -name 'Makefile' -o -name '*.tex' -o -name 'main.bbl' \) -print0 \
+  | while IFS= read -r -d '' f; do
+    dest="${WORKDIR}/$(basename "$f")"
+    if [[ -e "${dest}" ]]; then
+      echo "Duplicate filename detected while flattening: $(basename "$f")" >&2
+      exit 1
+    fi
+    cp "$f" "$dest"
+  done
 
 # Strip full-line comments from .tex sources (keep inline %).
-find "${WORKDIR}" -maxdepth 1 -name '*.tex' -type f -print0 | while IFS= read -r -d '' f; do
+while IFS= read -r -d '' f; do
   perl -ni -e 'next if /^\\s*%/; print' "$f"
-done
+done < <(find "${WORKDIR}" -name '*.tex' -type f -print0)
 
 echo "==> Creating ax.tar at ${OUT}"
 tar -C "${WORKDIR}" -cf "${OUT}" . >/dev/null