Universal Conditional Unlocking Fields (UCUF): A Necessity-Based Theory of Persistence, Measurement, and Universal Stability Regimes

This deposit presents the definitive law-level formulation of Conditional Unlocking Fields (CUF), a necessity only framework that explains identity persistence under change without assuming particles, fields, spacetime, energy, observers, or measurement axioms as primitives. CUF is grounded in a single ontological commitment: Necessitated Update Activity (NUA). Systems persist only insofar as they remain viable under unavoidable recursive updates subject to constraint. The framework defines a generic update constraint ledger recursion, introduces a viability functional, and derives a universal identity-locking threshold that functions as a natural unit of persistence. Measurement is defined pre stabilization as constraint overflow, and falsification conditions are stated explicitly. All claims are operational and invariant under an admissible group of representation, coarse-graining, and update-family transformations. The present work is structurally self-contained and does not rely on prior empirical results or interpretive mappings. Earlier preprints by the author introduced partial components of the framework (e.g., NUA alone, identity-locking thresholds, or classification schemes). These are superseded and unified here within a single coherent law-level exposition that clearly separates primitive commitments, invariance structure, interpretation boundaries, and non-claims. Domain-specific derivations and applications of CUF (including classification extensions and empirical mappings) are intentionally excluded from this deposit and appear in separate companion papers. Those works assume CUF as a governing persistence law rather than contributing to its justification. This release is issued prior to journal submission to establish priority and to provide an authoritative reference distinguishing the complete CUF framework from earlier partial drafts.