Paper 31: Coherence Thresholds and Angular Activation in Light–Matter Interaction

Standard quantum mechanics describes light–matter interaction using photons and probabilistic transitions, yet many threshold phenomena (photoelectric cutoff, discrete spectra, polarization/orientation selectivity) behave in an all-or-nothing way that suggests a structural gate beyond energy bookkeeping. This paper proposes a coherence-based mechanism in Holosphere Theory where coupling requires corridor admissibility in a discrete lattice of nested Holospheres plus a target-side resonance (mode selection). We present a two-layer threshold architecture: a micro-level “photon floor” ε_floor = 2α that bounds per-link angular mismatch for single-rail light, and a network-level operational cutoff ε̂ determined by a chosen global dropout anchor and a small-angle jitter scale σ, separating local admissibility from global reliability. We validate the gating interpretation with a real-data protocol on the public Weihs Alice/Bob timetag archives using only raw event streams and governed coincidence policies. The final run yields channel-resolved activation structure (dominant CC and VV timing populations near central alignment, strong suppression of mixed CV and VC under conservative matching, and modulation-linked off-center structure in bluesine3). These results operationalize corridor availability as a measurable, channel-dependent quantity summarized by KPIs (peak offsets, plateau support, suppression ratios). We conclude that macroscopic interaction occurs only when an incident coherence mode can enter via a gate-admissible corridor and meet resonance capture, and we define coherence catalysts as geometric/strain configurations that reduce effective σ and/or increase corridor availability, lowering the operational threshold without changing the micro floor.