Strong-Field Completion of FCLET: Horizon-Regular Latency Hair, Compact-Object Structure, Photon Rings, and Ringdown

This article establishes the strong-field completion of Finite-Capacity Local Event Theory. The causal geometry , the operational geometry the latency field , the finite-capacity load , and the matter stress–energy tensor are combined into a closed system for compact stars and black holes. The operational transport factor is For static spherical configurations, the causal metric is written as with The strong-field latency equation becomes This equation determines the latency profile and excludes arbitrary scalar hair. In a source-free exterior with a positive convex latency potential, regular asymptotic conditions force Nonzero strong-field latency hair is therefore source-supported by the finite-capacity load, the matter trace, or both. For a regular nonextremal horizon , the field obeys If the conformal transformation preserves the causal horizon. The operational horizon radius and area are and Unparametrized photon trajectories are conformally preserved, while the causal metric itself is modified by the stress–energy of the latency-load sector. Strong-field FCLET signatures therefore separate into two exact classes: backreaction on the causal geometry and operational transport of clocks, lengths, frequencies, and records. This framework generates definite compact-object observables: modified mass–radius relations, latency-supported exterior profiles, photon-ring displacements through metric backreaction, scalar-led quasinormal modes, operational ringdown-frequency transport, horizon-area transport, and exact general-relativistic recovery in the source-free zero-latency sector.