How Mass Is Acquired: A Space-Phase (SP3) Interpretation of the Higgs Boson

The experimental discovery of the Higgs boson confirmed the Standard Model mechanismby which particles acquire mass through interaction with a scalar field. While thisachievement validated a long-standing theoretical framework, it did not resolve the deeperphysical question of what mass is or why interaction with a field produces inertia. Thispaper presents an interpretation of mass acquisition within the Space-Phase-3 (SP3)framework, in which space is treated as a real, conditionable substrate possessing phasestructure, memory, and relaxation dynamics. In SP3, mass is not an intrinsic particleattribute nor something bestowed by a field, but the energetic cost incurred when apersistent interaction structure repeatedly re-conditions space-phase during motion oracceleration. The Higgs field is reinterpreted as a global descriptor of space-phasestiffness under symmetry constraints, while the Higgs boson represents an observableexcitation of that stiffness rather than the origin of mass itself. This framework provides aunified physical explanation for inertia, relativistic mass behavior, and the equivalence ofinertial and gravitational mass, while remaining consistent with established experimentalresults.