Aether-Unit Mechanism for the Photoelectric Effect (QMU/QADI: Ledger One transport, holonomy-projected photon geometry, and resonance gating)

This paper presents a QMU/QADI mechanism for the photoelectric effect built from Aether-unit geometry and ledger closure rather than a particulate “photon energy packet” premise. Core ontology. Electrons are the emitted entities. Illumination is treated as a condition of space filled with photon transfer fronts: outward-curled (reciprocal-mass) angular-momentum transport among polarized Aether units. “Energy” is used only as a descriptive ledger quantity of the emitted electron state, not as the transported entity. Propagation anchors. Transport speed is fixed by chronovibration, c=FqC, and by Ledger One, Aᵤ curl=Fq^2C^2=c^2so electromagnetic propagation is explicitly decomposed into rotational (Aether-unit) and torsional (curl) geometries. Geometry of electron and photon. The emitting electron is modeled as a 5D tubular loxodrome whose observed 4D state is its holonomy projection: a tubular cardioid with effective toroidal geometry. A photon inherits the holonomy-projected geometry of the causal electron transition and therefore propagates as a thin expanding cardioid band (ring-front) of angular-momentum transfer, not a moving pellet. Intensity as Aether-unit activation. Light intensity is treated operationally as event-rate drive at the receiver, lint=mₑ\, C\, Fq^3and is related to Aether activation byAᵤ=lint qcddwithqcdd=C^2/ (eₑmax^2\, Fq) This yields the canonical identityAᵤ=mₑ\, C^3Fq^2/eₑmax^2so “intensity” is interpreted as controlled Aether-unit activation modulated by charge-distribution dynamics. Resonance-gated receiver coupling. Threshold behavior is intrinsic: a receiver couples only when a geometry/holonomy resonance gate opens, G (^*, alignment) \0, 1\with ^*: =/Fq the dimensionless frequency ratio. Above threshold, emission is prompt because coupling is immediate once the gate opens; intensity controls the electron event rate when coupling is permitted. Reciprocal-mass interpretation. After canonical QMU reduction, the sign of the mₑ exponent is interpreted physically: >0 indicates inward-curled (matter-state) mass participation, while <0 indicates outward-curled reciprocal-mass participation (space/light-state contribution). This provides a unified ledger description of electron--photon conversion without treating “massless energy quanta” as fundamental objects. Falsifiable prediction. Single-emitter or nano-scale photoelectric measurements (with controlled alignment) should exhibit cardioid-like angular sensitivity maps that are masked in ensemble averages by axis randomization and spectral blending. Comparison note to E=h. The standard E=h mapping is acknowledged as a useful descriptive relation (and is deferred to an appendix-style cross-reading note). The APM/QMU mechanism differs in two specific ways: (i) the receiver seat-release quantum is fixed under ledger closure (receiver enrg-scale), so the model does not admit a continuously variable per-photon “payload” at the receiver; frequency opens the gate and intensity sets only the event rate once coupling is permitted; and (ii) the APM photon is treated as a true quantum of transfer-front action with fixed quantum structure (e. g. , phtn=h\, c in QMU), whereas the Einstein photon assigns variable energy to the photon itself via constant h and variable, without a physical emission mechanism explaining how a single particle carries inherent frequency. This paper is intended as a foundational platform for follow-on work on torsion-optics, boundary-operator engineering, isotope-selective coupling under polychromatic illumination, and controlled-geometry photoemission experiments.