Chronos-QED: A Reduced Conditional Derivation of the Low-Energy Fine-Structure Constant from Recursive Field-Shell Principles

This manuscript presents a reduced Chronos-QED derivation of a low-energy effective fine-structure value from recursive field-shell principles. The derivation proceeds from a Chronos return-field action, origin principles, shell lemmas, active participation, and recursive measurement dressing to obtain (αΘeff)−1=137.03599917949418684486819932280308398520531360684…. The package includes the PDF manuscript, LaTeX source, proof-audit appendices, plain-English summary, action-level reduction, standard-physics bridge appendix, and a machine-validation package. The validation files independently recompute the numerical chain, check internal gates, preserve identity relations, enforce no-refit separation from external anchors, and verify the certificate hash. The result is presented as an internally closed Chronos-QED theorem under the stated origin principles and bridge assumptions. It is not presented as an unconditional replacement of standard quantum electrodynamics. The manuscript explicitly separates numerical QED, internal axiomatic QED, action-reduced Chronos QED, origin-principle Chronos QED, the standard-physics bridge program, and the still-open question of an unconditional derivation from accepted standard QED.