On the Selection of Physical Structure from Non-Geometric Coherence

This preprint presents a principle-level framework addressing a foundational question in theoretical physics: under what conditions can physical structure be admissible at all, prior to the assumption of spacetime, dynamics, or state space. Rather than proposing a new microscopic model or dynamical law, the paper introduces a coherence-based selection principle operating at a pre-geometric level. Physical structures are treated not as entities generated by evolution within a predefined arena, but as configurations selected from a non-geometric, non-local configuration space according to their ability to maintain internal self-consistency. Spacetime geometry, fields, and probabilistic descriptions are interpreted as effective representations arising from a lossy projection of these admissible configurations. The framework is intentionally minimal. It specifies only four elements: a non-geometric configuration space, a coherence functional inducing admissibility, a stability cutoff separating persistent from nonpersistent configurations, and a coarse-graining projection to observable descriptions. No specific dynamics, optimization principle, or probabilistic postulate is assumed. This work is intended as a conceptual and structural constraint on fundamental theory-building rather than a complete physical theory. It clarifies which kinds of structures can meaningfully persist and thus serve as candidates for physical description, and it outlines indirect empirical signatures that render the framework falsifiable within existing observational paradigms.