Gravity Field Dynamics: Deriving the fine structure constant from gravitational topology

The fine structure constant alpha ~ 1/137 has resisted derivation from first principles for nearly a century. We show that the integer 137 and the fractional correction 1/28 both follow from the face structure and coupling polynomial of the stellated octahedron, the geometric object that encodes field closure in three spatial dimensions. The derivation uses two integers, K = 4 (tetrahedral face count) and D = 3 (spatial dimension), and no fitted parameters. The predicted value 1/alpha = 137 + 1/28 = 137.0357... agrees with the measured value 137.035999177 to two parts per million.