The External Stress–Energy Principle: A General-Relativistic Framework for Understanding Why Long-Range Fields Determine Observable Gravity A Conceptual Clarification, Not a Modified-Gravity Theory

This work presents a general-relativistic framework in which the external gravitational field of a physical system is determined entirely by the stress–energy it presents to spacetime. In this formulation, QCD dynamics govern the effective mass–energy content, while electromagnetic structure determines the spatial stress distribution (“shape”) that curves spacetime externally. The result is a clean, GR-consistent way to separate mass generation (QCD) from field shaping (EM), without modifying Einstein’s equations or introducing new physics. Submitted version; not yet peer-reviewed.