The Universal Principle of Cohesion

This paper introduces the Universal Principle of Cohesion as the third foundational disclosure in the Phase Mathematics / UCCF Foundations Series. Paper 1 established Phase Mathematics as the study of how coherence becomes relational through phase differentiation. Paper 2 developed FCHP Geometry as the geometric actualization of phase-differentiated coherence into curvature, dimensionality, and form. The present paper identifies the missing universal bridge between resonance and persistence: cohesion. The central thesis is that cohesion is stabilized resonance under coherence preservation. Resonance alone does not yet produce structure. It may amplify, cancel, oscillate, interfere, or destabilize. Structure appears only when resonance becomes cohesive: when phase-differentiated relations stabilize sufficiently to preserve coherence through transformation. This gives the universal cascade: Coherence -> Phase -> Resonance -> Cohesion -> Structure/Form. Across domains and scales, this cascade expresses itself differently. In mathematics, cohesion appears as stable equivalence, identity, and structural relation. In physics, it appears as coupling, binding, field stability, and matter formation. In chemistry, it appears as bond formation. In biology, it appears as self-maintenance, regulatory integration, and organismic persistence. In cognition, it appears as conceptual integration, memory, and identity. In information, it appears as reliable encoding, transmission, and meaning. In society, it appears as trust, coordination, institutions, and culture. The paper proposes that cohesion is not merely a physical attraction or material binding force. It is a universal stabilization principle: the condition by which resonance becomes persistent relation. Cohesion is therefore the binding function through which coherence becomes world. Keywords cohesion; Universal Principle of Cohesion; coherence; phase; resonance; stabilized resonance; adhesion; boundary; identity; law; structure; form; organization; Phase Mathematics; FCHP Geometry; UCCF; coherence preservation; persistent relation. Cohesion is the universal stabilization of resonance into persistent relation.