On the Origin of Mass as a Measure of Unclosed Phase Loops Abstract

We propose a structural origin of inertial mass based on phase–space dynamics of general systems.Mass is shown to arise as a derived quantity measuring the failure of phase loops to close under formation–decoupling evolution. In the linearized limit, this measure necessarily enters dynamical propagators as a quadratic invariant, explaining why mass squared, rather than mass itself, appears universally in relativistic field theories. The result embeds naturally into conservative–dissipative hybrid dynamics and is compatible with the Standard Model mass term structure.