LORENTZ AND THE RETENTION OF A NON-ENFORCING STRUCTURE

This paper examines the ontological status of the Lorentz ether using a strict physics-only, mechanism-first framework. Rather than disputing Lorentz’s empirical success, it evaluates whether the ether itself satisfies the minimum requirements for physical admissibility: force, energy exchange, momentum exchange, or reciprocal back-reaction. By applying a removal and invariance test grounded in locality and conservation, the paper demonstrates that the mature Lorentz ether functions as a dynamically inert placeholder that enforces nothing. Einstein’s contribution is identified not as a reinterpretation of effects, but as the elimination of a non-enforcing structure, yielding a theory composed solely of causally active elements.