IFO Spacetime: Emergence of Minkowski Geometry from Discrete Causal Event Networks

## Abstract This paper constructs a mathematically explicit route from an effective discrete causal event network to low-energy flat $(3+1)$-dimensional Minkowski spacetime within the Informational-Foundational Ontology (IFO). Spacetime is not an a priori geometric container, but the relational geometry woven by actualized energy transfer events (pops). Energy is an operational interface reading of preserved causal configurations across material interfaces, distinguishing open-chain radiative sectors from bound matter knots. Starting from an effective narrow-sense event network satisfying local homogeneity (`[M-E1']`), macroscopic isotropy (`[M-ExtIso]`), and covariant frame synchronization (`[M-Frame]`), we apply the D'Ariano–Perinotti Quantum Cellular Automaton (QCA) classification to isolate the Body-Centered Cubic (BCC) lattice as an admissible isotropic Cayley topology in spatial dimension $d=3$ (`[M-d3]`). Within this BCC Weyl family, we prove that an 8-dimensional doubled-branch state space $\mathbb{C}^8 = \mathbb{C}^2_{\text{spin}} \otimes \mathbb{C}^2_{\text{chirality}} \otimes \mathbb{C}^2_{\text{branch}}$ is sufficient to realize exact discrete Parity ($\mathcal{P}$) and Time-Reversal ($\mathcal{T}$) symmetries across all quasi-momenta (`[T | M-Branch]`), with time-reversal satisfying the fermionic Kramers identity $\mathcal{T}_8^2 = -I_8$. In the long-wavelength continuum limit ($ka \ll 1, \theta \ll 1$), this discrete dynamics yields two degenerate copies of the covariant Dirac equation ($H_8 = H_D \oplus H_D$) with explicit leading remainder orders $O(k^2 a^2, \theta^2)$, whose characteristic surfaces define the conformal Minkowski light cone $c^2 dt^2 - d\mathbf{x}^2 = 0$. By establishing that macroscopic translation acts as an isometry on the flat effective domain, the conformal factor is fixed to a constant ($\partial_\mu \Omega = 0$), recovering the standard Minkowski metric $\eta_{\mu\nu} = \operatorname{diag}(1, -1, -1, -1)$ upon unit calibration. The branch-doubling degeneracy cost is explicitly logged (`T-BranchPhysical [O]`), and leading-order cubic anisotropic Lorentz-invariance violations ($\left|\Delta v / c\right|_{\max} \approx 0.385 \, E / E_{\text{cut}}$) are cataloged under Death Clause F-2.