An Eight-Phase Canon for Identity-Preserving Systems

An Eight-Phase Canon for Identity-Preserving Systems Abstract This note records a fixed and irreducible eight-phase canonical structure governing how identity may lawfully appear, destabilize, recover, complete, or dissolve in adaptive systems. The phases are defined as regimes of legality rather than states, behaviors, or experiences. Each phase corresponds one-to-one with an invariant identity function, forming a closed architecture that admits no extension without loss of identity preservation. The contribution is purely structural and introduces no mechanisms, algorithms, implementations, or prescriptions. Its purpose is to establish conceptual priority and prevent subsequent drift or reinterpretation of the phase model.