We close the notion of time in the VBRC framework as a self-contained module. Timeis treated as an operational instance (a declared synchronization/units rule) rather thanas a Structural Layer variable. Within the conservative time-completion reading (R3)and the density-fixed Laplace-principal backbone, we define a primary time instance bysynchronization to a massless open-sector signal cone (a “light channel”), with a rail calibrationfixing the measured propagation speed to a universal constant c. This canonicity is regimedependent: if the principal-level contract is relaxed, the signal cone becomes model-dependentand time cannot be closed as a series-internal canonical representative. Cone invarianceis treated as a pre-instance structural invariant under admissible eliminations within theregime; the present paper supplies only the operational synchronization and calibrationneeded to select a canonical time representative. We record (i) Lorentz kinematics implied bycone invariance, (ii) compatibility of nonrelativistic quantum mechanics under positive timereparametrization, including generator scaling Hτ = (dt/dτ )H and the phase–time invariantdφ = E dt/ℏ, (iii) the induced reparametrization-invariant form of classical variationalmechanics (action/Hamilton–Jacobi), and (iv) rate-rescaling versus arrow invariance indissipative models. The result is a series-internal time module referenced by subsequentclosure papers (Parts IX–XI). Here ℏ is treated as a rail/normalization constant in thequantum instance (Parts III and XI), not as a structural primitive.
Yunbeom Yi (2026) studied this question.