From Electron to Neutrino: A Unified Energy-Ontological Account of Strongly and Weakly Constrained Particles

The electron and the neutrino are fundamental particles with vastly different masses: me = 0.511 MeV versus mν < 1 eV. This paper unifies them within Energy-Efficiency Theory (EET) as two ends of a continuous spectrum of constraint strength. We define the constraint strength κ = Eb/λc, where Eb is the constraint barrier and λc is the Compton wavelength. The electron is strongly constrained (κ ≫ 1) and exhibits particle-like behavior; the neutrino is weakly constrained (κ ≪ 1) and exhibits wave-like behavior. We show that neutrino oscillations arise from the periodic sliding of the neutrino’s energy ratio ην between free-state and constrained state regimes. Three falsifiable predictions are proposed, linking neutrino oscillation parameters to the EET framework.