Emergent Gauge Coupling of an Electron-Like Packet in the ECSM Framework

This paper presents the V23 stage of the ECSM electron-like packet programme. Building on the V21b single-action recovery and V22 Dirac-limit propagation results, V23 tests whether the same electron-like packet admits an emergent minimal gauge-coupling structure. The construction inherits a near-electron rest-energy scale and coherent-limit Dirac-like propagation, then introduces an effective gauge-response field through a local response phase, an effective vector response, and an effective scalar response. The packet is tested under the minimal-coupling replacement p -> p - q_eff A_eff, together with a gauge-covariant derivative. The V23 audit finds that the alpha/beta response algebra remains exact, the gauge-covariant derivative transforms correctly to numerical precision, the minimally coupled Hamiltonian remains Hermitian, constant-field minimal-coupling dispersion is recovered, positive and negative branch structure is preserved, norm conservation is maintained, and finite-response deviations grow as coherence is reduced. Final audit label: PASS_STRONG: V23 recovers the minimal emergent gauge-coupling doorway for the ECSM electron-like packet. This result does not claim a full QED derivation. It does not derive the magnetic moment, anomalous magnetic moment, Lamb shift, scattering amplitudes, or radiative corrections. The result is narrower: ECSM now has an electron-like packet with a near-electron rest-energy scale, coherent-limit Dirac-like propagation, and a minimal emergent gauge-coupling doorway. GitHub notebook: https://github.com/asheldrick-research/ecsm-framework/blob/main/ECSM_Electron_Like_Packet_Emergent_Gauge_Coupling_V23_CLEAN.ipynb