Daif Theory: Pregeometric Time-Matter

This paper develops a speculative but falsifiable framework in which temporal succession and spacetime geometry emerge from a pre-geometric quantum substrate, provisionally termed time-matter. Causal relations among substrate configurations constitute succession, and coarse-grained correlations are conjectured to define a Lorentzian metric whose proper time all clocks share. General relativity and quantum field theory are imposed as the infrared universality class—matching conditions rather than derived results—and speculative extensions are required to leave established physics unmodified within current limits. The phenomenological core is a monotonic stochastic operational time that subordinates proper time. At leading order, it yields an energy-conserving double-commutator master equation with temporal-diffusion coefficient D_T, clock-visibility factor exp(−D_Tω₀²T), and spatial correlation kernel F_T. A compound-Poisson worldline realization conditionally gives D_T ≥ τ_c/2, while differential clocks constrain the combination D_T[1−F_T], rather than τ_c independently. Matter-wave interferometry may provide a strong conditional constraint if rest-energy phases couple to branch-dependent stochastic operational time, although a complete interferometer model is still required. The timelike-worldline ansatz assigns no diffusion to null proper time, but photon propagation remains to be verified through a covariant field-theory completion. The manuscript presents twelve falsification criteria and a concrete experimental program. Time-matter remains a hypothetical substrate; this preprint proposes consistency requirements and testable phenomenology and does not claim an experimentally established discovery. Version 1.4. Preprint—not peer reviewed.