Cosmochrony: A Non-Injective Projection Theory of Emergent Physics

Cosmochrony is a pre-geometric relational framework that does not replace quantum mechanics or general relativity, but operates at a deeper structural level from which both emerge as effective descriptions in appropriate regimes. Its aim is to expose the common infra-physical foundations underlying these theories, to clarify how their conceptual structures are mutually consistent, and to show that several phenomena currently treated as independent postulates or open problems follow necessarily from a minimal common origin. The framework postulates a single static substrate $\chi$, encoding only admissibility constraints. Observable states are obtained through a fixed generically non-injective projection $\Pi$, whose non-injectivity is a structural necessity rather than an independent assumption: any framework that distinguishes an infra-physical level from an observable level must admit such a map. No fundamental spacetime, metric, or quantum structure is assumed. From this minimal ontology, temporal ordering, spatial geometry, the causal structure of spacetime, the origin of quantum indeterminacy, and the structure of matter emerge as projective consequences rather than independent postulates. The speed of light and Planck's constant arise as complementary bounds on projectability and spectral resolvability. The three-generation structure of Standard Model fermions, the quantization of electric charge, and the absence of magnetic monopoles follow from admissibility constraints on the projection fiber. The framework yields falsifiable predictions: a ${\sim}5\%$ enhancement of $H(z)$ at $z \sim 1$ relative to $\Lambda$CDM, environment-dependent deviations in kinematic inference in cosmic voids testable with current surveys, and a structural upper bound on the capacity exponent governing the fermion mass hierarchy. The present document serves as the conceptual and structural reference for the Cosmochrony programme. Formal derivations, spectral numerical evidence, and phenomenological applications are developed in a series of companion papers cited throughout.