Dissipation — circulating vs draining distress flow

Spectral answers 'how close to runaway'. Loops answer 'where the feedback sits'. This lens answers what happens to distress once it flows: whirlpool or drain. The distinction decides backstop design — a whirlpool needs the web broken; a drain needs the exit protected.

How it reads

circ_frac in [0,1]: high = self-feeding circulation (systemic backstop), low = draining (targeted backstop). sink_flux[] shows which exits absorb. Read with cascade_backstop_v1 for the Mode A/B fork.