Chronon Field Theory II: Emergent Non-Abelian Holonomy and Vector Masses Without a Fundamental Higgs: A Background-Independent SU(2)×U(1) Prototype with a Massless Photon

We extend Chronon Field Theory (CFT) beyond the emergent U(1) sector by constructing a compact non-Abelian holonomy from the internal geometry of the chronon field Φ µ . We prove existence of an emergent principal SU(2) bundle and connection, derive the Yang–Mills action on the emergent metric gµνΦ, and show how vector boson masses arise without a fundamental scalar: either via a Stückelberg-like realization of internal phases or through a composite amplitude mode of Φ. We demonstrate that a residual U(1) combination remains unbroken, ensuring an exactly massless photon as in QED, and we establish Ward/Slavnov–Taylor identities and tree-level unitarity for longitudinal vector scattering. Solitonic matter from Paper I is minimally coupled through the emergent connection; we extract phenomenological constraints from precision electroweak data and outline a path to SU(3) (Paper III).