Foundations of Chronogravity: Time as Field, Gravity as Emergence

This preprint lays the conceptual and mathematical foundations of ChronoGravity, a new framework in which gravity emerges as buoyancy in gradients of a physical, elastic time field (the ψ-field) rather than as a fundamental force or spacetime curvature. The paper begins with the “First Fracture”: gravity cannot be fundamental because a universal force acting on the entire cosmos would require an external reference frame that cannot exist. From this insight, the theory elevates time to a dynamic physical field. Photons, experiencing zero proper time (dτ = 0), reveal that motion and energy flow are governed by the structure of this field. A central intuition is the “chrono-buoyancy thought experiment”: suspended droplets in air behave like “small moons,” following invisible gradients of time flow. This perceptual shift leads directly to the core ChronoGravity force law: Fg = – m c² ∇(Δτ / Δt) The work also introduces a striking biological implication: photosynthesis acts as “chrono-harvesting.” Photons with zero time dilation transfer their eternal temporal reserve to leaves, effectively “winding back” molecular clocks and extending the plant’s lifespan in our chrono-field perspective. Life itself thus emerges as a natural consequence of the universe’s temporal structure. This paper serves as the gateway to the ChronoGravity series, establishing the ontology (ψ-knots, uniform ψ-field, chrono-buoyancy) that underpins companion works on black-hole singularities and gravitational-wave predictions.