Emergent Reality Architecture: A Unified Structural Account of Physical Law from Quantum Mechanics to Cosmological Expansion

Emergent Reality Architecture: A Unified Structural Account of Physical Law from Quantum Mechanics to Cosmological Expansion This paper introduces Emergent Reality Architecture (ERA), an ontological and structural framework aimed at clarifying why modern physics contains three persistent puzzles that are typically treated separately: quantum phenomena that resist classical intuition, massless propagation (e.g., light) whose trajectories carry no proper time (null structure), and gravitation that appears as curvature rather than a conventional force. Rather than proposing new equations or modifying established dynamics, ERA examines representational assumptions that are often implicit in contemporary theory—specifically the widespread assumption that spacetime geometry is fundamental and that time is assumed to admit arbitrarily fine resolution. ERA argues that these assumptions are not directly empirically mandated and that several foundational tensions arise when they are treated as universally valid outside the regimes in which they succeed. At the core of ERA is a constraint–freedom engine in which physical behavior depends on the relationship between imposed constraints and finite representational capacity. Within this framework, probability arises as residual freedom among admissible configurations; determinism corresponds to representational saturation; and emergence is forced when lawful behavior can no longer be coherently represented within a given regime. ERA identifies four representational regimes—configuration (Regime I), distinguishability (Regime II), ordering (Regime III), and metric closure (Regime IV)—each introduced to resolve specific structural failures of the one below it. Quantum phenomena arise naturally in regimes lacking metric closure; massless propagation originates in a regime that supports relational distinction without internal temporal ordering; and gravitation is interpreted as the geometric instantiation of ordering constraints once metric closure is enforced. In this view, stable orbital motion can be understood as the metric-closure encoding of temporal persistence (“temporal rest”) when time-relational stability must be expressed within spacetime. ERA is offered as an explanatory framework, not a competing dynamical theory. Its contribution lies in clarifying why probability, gravitation, and regime-dependent physical behavior—including quantum contextuality, null propagation, orbital persistence, and dark-sector interpretation—can be structurally unavoidable features of physical description, while preserving the empirical validity of quantum mechanics and general relativity. Related work: Two complementary conceptual clarifications within standard general relativity are developed separately. Orbits as Inertial States: Rethinking Rest in General Relativity (Zenodo) isolates the distinction between inertial rest (geodesic motion) and spatial fixation (non-geodesic constraint) in curved spacetime. Geodesics as Regimes of Persistence (Zenodo) unpacks how the geodesic classification (timelike/null/spacelike), via the sign of ds², encodes distinct modes of physical realizability—persistence with proper time, persistence without proper time, and geometric relations without physical worldlines. A further application of the framework to dark-sector phenomenology is developed in Representational Limits and Dark Matter: Spatial Suppression and Halo Structure (Zenodo), which interprets dark matter halos as regimes of restricted spatial localization while preserving the established dynamical success of collisionless halo models. An application of the ERA framework to the phase-space structure of collisionless dark matter halos is developed in Orbital Jerk Exposure and Shell Width Universality: A First-Principles Account of the Density–Anisotropy Relation (Zenodo), which proposes a structural explanation for the density–anisotropy relation observed in cosmological halo simulations. Revision notes (Version 13.7): Condensed for readability: Version 13.6 reduces the manuscript from 27 to 19 pages through systematic compression of prose throughout. All core arguments, formal statements, empirical results, and structural claims are preserved. No positions were changed. Formatting standardized: Section numbering converted to numbered subsections, subsection hierarchy regularized, and |C| notation Introduced consistently throughout to make the constraint–freedom engine's three cases visually explicit. New interpretive content added: Three substantive additions were made to the compressed version. First, a paragraph on deferred individuation was added to Section 4.1, framing quantum multiplicity as a structurally economical representation that defers metric-embedded individuation until forced by measurement constraints. Second, a paragraph connecting χMD's dimensionlessness to the pre-metric relational structure of Section 3.2 was added to Section 8.5. Third, a closing paragraph was added to the Conclusion identifying a structural pattern of parsimony running through all ERA domains: the architecture consistently defers representational commitment to the minimum required for coherence, from quantum multiplicity through orbital mechanics, dark matter encoding, time dilation, and horizon formation. Correspondence: Peter Nowicki — peternowicki@proton.me