Black Holes as Dimensional Ruptures: A Mechanical Framework for Gravitation

This paper proposes that black holes are finite-area ruptures in four-dimensional spacetime that open into an adjacent higher-dimensional region. In this framework, gravity arises from a vacuum-pressure gradient across the rupture boundary. Rupture formation implies that spacetime exhibits material-like behavior, including deformation and structural failure. A minimal microstructural substrate exhibiting lattice-like mechanical behavior is introduced to recover familiar gravitational behavior under normal conditions while governing rupture formation under extreme collapse. The resulting model produces coherent implications for black-hole structure, dark-matter-like galactic effects, and large-scale cosmic acceleration, and it offers observational tests capable of distinguishing it from standard models. Version 2: Clarifies probabilistic failure mechanics, refines horizon-level oblateness predictions, adds caveats regarding dark matter phenomenology, and introduces dimensionality clarification. No change to core claims. Version 3: Clarifies decoupling of the black-hole mass floor from the neutron-star mass limit, adds discussion of secondary elastic lattice effects, and refines directional structure predictions. No change to core claims. Version 4: Clarifies the heuristic role of lattice-like terminology, renames the paper to reflect this conceptual refinement, and expands speculative discussion of the cosmological constant problem. No change to core claims.