Theory of Global Time: Canonical Order, Operational Time, and History Immutability

This work introduces a new physical theory of time in which temporal dynamics is grounded in the canonical global order of events rather than in synchronized clocks, spacetime coordinates, or metric postulates. Time is not treated as a background parameter nor as a geometric attribute, but as a dynamically generated physical structure arising from the irreversible growth of ordered temporal history. The theory departs from the conventional assumption that temporal order is intrinsically defined at sources or encoded in spacetime geometry. Instead, it starts from a physically minimal premise: intrinsic source-side temporal order is inaccessible.The only admissible temporal information is the order in which events are received and registered by observers. From this premise, a new dynamical framework of time is constructed. A canonical global order is generated through distributed reception of repeatable signals. Reception events are indexed, aggregated into admissible sequences, and integrated into a unique global order that is invariant under signal delay,reordering, spatial separation, and dynamic expansion of the observational infrastructure. This evolving canonical orderconstitutes the primary temporal structure and gives rise to new dynamical equations of time, governing the lawful extension of temporal history. On the basis of this order, a global operational time parameter is defined as a monotonic accumulation over order extensions. This time exists only at the observer, does not presuppose simultaneity, intrinsic source time, or a pre-existing spacetime temporal coordinate, and derives its meaning entirely from the underlying ordering dynamics. Clock models and metric time coordinates appear as secondary representations, valid only within restricted regimes, and do not generate temporal order themselves. A central and non-trivial result of the theory is the physical immutability of reconstructed temporal history. While observational access may expand through additional sources, reception nodes, or increased resolution, such extensions can affect only future reconstruction. Once established, past temporal order and assigned time values cannot be retroactively modified. This non-reconstructibility of history is shown to be a necessary condition for time to function as a causal, coordinative, and physically stable quantity. The theory is compatible with the empirical content of Special and General Relativity, but is logically and temporally prior to them. Relativistic theories constrain admissible causal relations, but do not generate a unique global temporal order nor impose immutability of history. In the present framework, canonical global order is introduced as a pre-metric physical primitive, upon which spacetime geometry, relativistic causal structure, and clock models are imposed as secondary constructs. Metric time remains applicable to local dynamics, while global operational time provides a physically realizable structure for large-scale temporal coordination. The predictive content of the theory is structural and history-dynamical. It constrains the admissible behavior of time itself:it forbids observer-dependent divergence of global time within shared reconstruction domains,excludes retroactive modification and rollback of temporal history,and predicts convergence of independently reconstructed times across observers as observational coverage increases.In the asymptotic limit, global time approaches a universal ordering structure not as a postulated absolute entity, but as a limit of physically realizable reconstruction.