Metriplectic Dynamics of QCD and the Electroweak Sector in the Theory of Structural Articulation

This work presents a unified formulation of strong and electroweak interactions within the Theory of Structural Articulation (TSA). Quantum Chromodynamics is extended to a metriplectic framework in which the evolution of gauge fields is governed by the interplay between a reversible Hamiltonian flow, preserving informational code, and an irreversible metric relaxation resolving structural conflict associated with global connectivity. An explicit infrared kernel is constructed, leading to a dynamical mechanism of confinement and the emergence of a mass gap without explicit breaking of gauge symmetry. A quantitative bridge equation is derived, relating the confinement scale to the top–quark mass through topological and combinatorial invariants of the active vacuum. The resulting value reproduces the observed top–quark mass at the percent level without parameter fitting. The framework is extended to the overcritical regime, where the top–quark mass is shown to mark a structural phase transition beyond which the confinement channel melts and electroweak symmetry is restored. Within this picture, the Higgs field is reinterpreted as an emergent order parameter describing the rigidity of the vacuum network, and particle masses arise from metric friction against a condensed connectivity background. A technical appendix specifies the microscopic scaling of mobility across the phase transition and clarifies the separation of reversible and irreversible generators in the metriplectic dynamics. The theory is proposed as a structural effective framework that unifies confinement, mass generation, and symmetry breaking as different dynamical regimes of a single articulation process.