Mass Formation via Harmonic Lock-In and Nodal Accumulation

The origin of mass is commonly treated as a primitive assumption in physical theory, with gravitational dynamics invoked to describe its effects rather than its formation. This approach introduces a persistent circularity in which mass explains gravity while gravity is implicitly assumed to enable mass accumulation. In this work, we present a structure-first framework that resolves this circularity by treating mass as an emergent regime arising from constrained oscillatory dynamics rather than as a fundamental substance. We show that unconstrained oscillatory media—such as plasma and field-dominated regimes—exhibit high recoverability and lack persistent identity. Under geometric constraint, interference and resonance naturally produce nodal structures that restrict accessible phase space. Persistent nodal geometry increases dwell time, promotes accumulation, and leads to harmonic lock-in, progressively suppressing degrees of freedom. Mass is identified with partial temporal lock-in: sufficient constraint to sustain identity across time while retaining internal dynamical activity. Within this ordering, gravity is not a formative cause of mass but a downstream manifestation of timing and synchronization gradients introduced by partially locked structures. Thermodynamic quantities, including temperature and blackbody radiation, are treated as entropic diagnostics that characterize the statistical population of modes once structure exists, rather than as mechanisms of material formation. At planetary scales, long-lived magnetic and gravitational organization are interpreted as macroscopic signatures of sustained structural coherence. This framework provides a continuous, scale-independent account of mass formation grounded in harmonic constraint, interference, and nodal persistence, without introducing new forces, particles, or modifications to established gravitational theory. Mass emerges as a structural regime defined by recoverability and temporal constraint, resolving long-standing explanatory ambiguities through a reordering from force-first to structure-first physics.