The General Theory of Irreversible Distinguishability V: Chemistry and Life as Symmetry-Broken Persistent Refinement

This paper derives chemistry and the structural transition to life as necessary consequences of persistence under irreversible loss. Building on the stability-selected spacetime and gauge structure established in Papers I–IV, we show that atomic stability,discrete shell structure, molecular binding, chemical reactions, and autocatalytic networks arise as loss-minimizing refinement configurations. Chemistry is shown to be thedomain of discrete composite persistence, where continuous structural freedom has beenexhausted and only finite stable binding patterns remain admissible. The transition tobiology is derived as a shift from static chemical closure to self-maintaining refinementsystems capable of internal loss regulation. No chemical forces, reaction laws, energeticpostulates, biological functions, or empirical assumptions are introduced. Chemistryand life emerge purely as structural regimes of refinement under irreversible loss.