What is a chemical bond, fundamentally—and why do only specific molecular structures emerge despite strong electron–electron repulsion? This work introduces a coherence-based mechanism for molecular bonding, in which bonds arise not from pairwise attractive forces alone, but from the formation of globally stable field configurations that reorganize interaction into self-consistent structures. Building on a field-mediated framework, electrons are interpreted as extended coherence structures that induce a response in a surrounding Field Matrix. When atoms interact, this response generates stabilized configurations—coherence envelopes and dual-node structures—that minimize global coherence imbalance. Molecular bonds are thus defined as stable solutions of a coherence functional rather than as direct consequences of local interactions. This approach provides a unified explanation for: the formation of stable bonds despite repulsive interactions, the emergence of discrete bond lengths and angles, the origin of molecular geometry, and the relationship between covalent, ionic, and metallic bonding as different regimes of coherence stabilization. The framework remains compatible with quantum mechanical results while offering a structural interpretation of orbitals as projections of underlying coherence configurations. A minimal mathematical formulation is introduced, expressing bonding as a global stability condition, and leading to testable predictions including threshold-like structural transitions, discontinuous changes in bonding character, and geometry-dependent spectroscopic effects. This work aims to provide a physically interpretable mechanism for chemical bonding and a foundation for further theoretical and experimental investigation.
Henrik Nilsson (Mon,) studied this question.