Abstract
<jats:p>Modern electrodynamics treats wave propagation, mass, charge, and energy as outputs of separate mathematical formalisms, unified only within the deterministic setting of classical field theory. That unity dissolves in high-energy regimes: Quantum Electrodynamics (QED) predicts pair-production probabilities with remarkable precision, yet offers no concrete, mechanical account of how propagating field energy converts into localized mass and charge. This article proposes a generative, structurally deterministic alternative to that abstraction. We treat undisturbed space not as a fixed background lattice but as a calculus continuum of infinitesimal potentials that integrate globally to zero (lim δ→0). A photon is modeled not as a particle traversing this continuum but as a phase-resolved energy structure that actively induces, within a finite volume simultaneously quantized by electromagnetic frequency and ambient terrestrial gravity, a three-layer concentric configuration: a negative-energy core, a zero-energy crossing surface, and a positive-energy outer shell. When the alternating energy handoff driven by the instantaneous Poynting vector meets an absolute structural limit — such as the gravitational pre-stress imposed by a heavy nucleus acting as a mechanical anvil — the induced shell undergoes a single-step, bilateral, dielectric-style breakdown. The resulting open linear discontinuities relax intense internal pressure gradients through a chiral folding sequence that terminates in topologically stable, self-locked geometric solitons. Electric charge, in this framework, is defined as the macroscopic signature of the exposed geometric seam left behind by the fold. The model offers a concrete mechanical engine for electron-positron pair generation and a specific, falsifiable prediction for the field- and gravitational-pressure thresholds relevant to ultra-fast, high-intensity laser-plasma pair-production experiments.</jats:p>