Where Does Mass Come From — Higgs Coupling versus Internal Lean

The Standard Model reads mass as coupling to an external Higgs field and insertsthe nine charged-fermion coupling strengths (Yukawas) by hand, unexplained. Withoutdisputing any measured value, this paper inverts the reading of the source: mass is theinternal imbalance — the lean — of a bound wavon triple. The entire paper stands on a singleassumption: one that current physics does not accept — that there is structure below theelementary level, and that it begins with three wavon phase states (§1). If that assumption isrejected, everything in this paper is meaningless; the vulnerability is exposed, not hidden, inthe first section. On that assumption the following fall out. (i) One algebraic structure (1 + ω +ω² = 0) reproduces the charge spectrum, multiplicities, and the 1/3 quantum with nomeasured constant inserted (§3, code). (ii) The same structure’s weight |L|² ∈ {0,1,3,4} gives aqualitative internal reading of mass: symmetric ⇒ lean 0 — massless (photon); asymmetric ⇒lean — massive. The weight, however, is a coupling class, not a mass magnitude (sealed in2057; §4 v) — the non-derivation of magnitudes stands in §9 as a deliberate limit. Theequivalence principle turns from postulate to necessity (§7.1). (iii) The parity theorem 3Q + n= even (proved; native form — sealed in 2057) supplies built-in falsifiers (§4 iv). (iv) The sameletters reproduce the gauge mediators and decay directions (§5) and correspond to the grossnuclear pattern (§6 — a translation, not a derivation). (v) The chain of definitions closes:phase difference = time = lean = mass — mass and time fold into names of one object (§7.5).Gravity is not a fifth name of that chain but the transmission of winding (energy) throughthe mesh (§7.5, claim correction — Appendix B item 21) — the reason the photon, with lean0 but winding present, gravitates. Every number is Python-reproducible (§10, full run ofasserts confirmed), and items not currently adjudicable are separated into a held-positionsregister (Appendix A) with dates and return conditions. Adjudication of truth — themeasurements and even the interpretation of the measurements — is handed entirely to thephysics community (§8).δ = 2/9 remains a fit with no derived mechanism. The measured successes of the Higgsaccount (the W·Z masses; the boson’s discovery) are objects of reproduction, not refutation.