Quiet Black Hole Formation as Temporal Identity Resolution

Recent observations of massive stars that disappear without producing classical supernova explosions have been described as “failed supernovae.” This terminology implicitly treats explosion as the successful endpoint of stellar death. Using the Andromeda Galaxy object M31-2014-DS1 as a representative case, we argue that quiet collapse events are not failed explosions but completed temporal resolutions. Explosion and black hole formation correspond to distinct resolution pathways rather than different outcomes of a single process. The defining criterion is not collapse timescale or luminosity, but the existence of admissible outward trajectories. When all outward routes are denied, the system undergoes a discrete identity transition into a black hole, regardless of how gradual the preceding dynamics may be. Apparent suddenness arises from loss of observational access and categorical resolution, not from intrinsically rapid physical processes. Reframing quiet collapse in this way clarifies recent observations without modifying existing stellar physics.