We present a closed, parameter-free variational framework in which physical reality is rigorously defined as the unique configuration selected from the set of stationary solutions of a universal quartic functional. Within this structure, admissibility is determined exclusively by the variational condition S / ^ (x) = 0, while physical realization follows from a global decisional selection functional acting on the admissible domain. We formulate a general non-existence theorem for non-derived quantities: any term not emerging from the internal variational structure does not belong to the admissible configuration space and cannot correspond to a physically existing entity. Applying this result to the standard cosmological model, we demonstrate that both dark matter and dark energy arise as compensatory components introduced to restore agreement between observational data and incomplete dynamical equations, and are not derivable from any closed variational principle. We then construct an explicit structural replacement in which the phenomena commonly attributed to the dark sector—flat galaxy rotation curves, gravitational lensing, and accelerated expansion—emerge directly from the spectral hierarchy and geometric structure generated by the Hessian of the functional. No invisible matter, cosmological constant, or external parameters are introduced. All results follow exclusively from the internal variational structure, its spectral decomposition, and the global decisional selection functional, without fitting procedures, parameter tuning, or external assumptions.
Livolsi Edoardo (Mon,) studied this question.