Strict Locality and the Structural Gap in the Classical Account of Gravitational Time Dilation

A classical scalar model of gravity, built on two assumptions and no free parameters, that recovers the Newtonian potential, structurally prevents the central singularity, and reproduces gravitational time dilation in full (coefficient 1) while yielding half the value where the spatial component is required (coefficient one-half). The one-half is shown to be structural in origin. The paper locates a structural gap in the classical account: in this limit, general relativity joins two components of local origin under a geometric constraint imposed by the vacuum condition, not a physical mechanism linking them — and poses, as an open question, what would make that constraint physical.