Entropic Physics: Emergent Time and Geometry from Quantum Dual Fields

Abstract We propose a background--free formulation of fundamental physics in which time, causality, mass, spin, statistics, and gravity emerge from information--theoretic structure and optimal control, rather than being postulated a priori. The framework is formulated entirely in exterior calculus on a smooth 4-manifold, using g-valued differential forms and g^* valued pseudoforms paired by Poincar'e duality. No Hilbert space, operator algebra, or background metric is assumed. A central structural distinction is drawn between forms and pseudoforms. Pseudoform observables represent extensive, orientation--insensitive quantities(action, entropy, probability, volume), while form--valued microscopic representatives encode orientation-- and transport--sensitive degrees of freedom.Observable closure induces an intrinsic Z_2 redundancy, allowing microscopic sign changes under transport while leaving observables invariant.This yields a geometric origin of chirality, spin, Dirac doubling, and the spin--statistics connection without canonical quantization. Within each gauge sector, Noether superpotentials generate conserved scalar 3-pseudoform fluxes. The only intrinsic top pseudoform available without background structure is the gauge -column pairing identified as sector entropy production.Bosonic coherence corresponds to entropy--neutral pseudoform oscillations,whereas fermionic dynamics arise from orientation--sensitive form variationsand generate irreversible entropy and mass. Hamilton's principle of stationary action and Onsager's principle of minimum dissipation are shown to arise from a single constrainedinformation--theoretic optimization, with Kullback--Leibler divergence as the canonical mismatch functional and Fisher information as its infinitesimal limit.For three independent compact sectors, conserved fluxes induce canonical 3+1 splittings whose compatibility reconstructs a Lorentzian conformalgeometry, with entropy--volume matching fixing the metric scale. Using Cartan calculus and a teleparallel identity, the Einstein--Hilbert density is recovered, up to boundary terms, from a quadratic first--derivative functional, isolating gravity as an emergent compatibility structure. --- This document is made publicly available to establish priority and enable open scientific discussion.A revised version of this manuscript is currently under review at Physical Review D.This version is a preprint and has not yet undergone peer review.