The n=2, m=1 fermion (charged lepton) has a purely antisymmetric residual. Antisymmetry is self-contained: projection onto the antisymmetric subspace recovers the residual exactly, with zero error. The fermion can be described as a free asymptotic state.
The n=3, m=1 fermion (quark) has a mixed-symmetry residual. Projection onto either self-contained class (symmetric or antisymmetric) leaves a nonzero residual of magnitude ≈ 0.408, verified numerically. A mixed-symmetry fermion always requires reference to the configuration from which it arose.
Conjecture 1 (Confinement from mixed symmetry). A fermion whose compression residual B has mixed symmetry cannot be described as a free asymptotic state under any minimum-description-length codec. Colour confinement is a structural consequence of the three-site codec geometry, not a separately imposed force law.