The Quantum Core Framework: A Holographic, Information-Theoretic Theory of Gravity

Description of the Quantum Core Framework This series of twelve papers develops a unified, information-theoretic approach to quantum gravity, grounded in a single hypothesis and three fundamental constants. The central postulate is that the classical singularity at the centre of every black hole is replaced by a static, Planck-scale quantum core, whose physical properties are derived self-consistently from black hole thermodynamics. From this single entity — together with Newton's constant GG, the speed of light cc, and Planck's constant ℏℏ — the entire framework unfolds without any adjustable parameters. The core serves as the entanglement anchor for all horizon degrees of freedom, establishing a holographic duality that reinterprets the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy as the entanglement entropy between the core and the exterior. From this duality, Einstein's classical field equations emerge as the thermodynamic equation of state, while entanglement fluctuations yield a specific quantum correction. The framework resolves the Hawking information paradox through a three-stage entanglement transfer mechanism that naturally reproduces the Page curve, and it provides a local entropy density for ordinary gravitational fields, showing it to be negligible in all astrophysical systems without horizons. In cosmology, a primordial gas of quantum cores drives Starobinsky-like inflation and accounts for the smallness of the present-day cosmological constant through dilution. Structurally, the theory is completed at high energy by the Quantum Core Network — a discrete dynamical system of Planck-scale qubits whose continuum limit yields the modified Einstein equations. Specific, falsifiable predictions include gravitational-wave echoes from binary black hole mergers, a modified photon dispersion relation, a tensor-to-scalar ratio r≈0.004, and a population of stable Planck-mass dark-matter candidates. The framework introduces no fields beyond those already present in established physics and is parameterised solely by GG, cc, and ℏℏ.