Let a photon be a latent coherence mode traversing a background coherence field . The spherically symmetric solution of the static anchoring equation
is the Yukawa–type kernel
where
has units J m⁻¹,
has units J m⁻³,
carries units J m⁻¹.
The decoherence‐penalty density for a minimally anchoring mode is
with in J s² m⁻³. The transverse “force” on the photon follows from the tension‐gradient:
In particular, calibrating and to yield reproduces the solar‐limb deflection without any spacetime curvature.
2. Mutual Anchoring & Coulomb Scaling
Define each charged mode’s coherence charge via its phase winding (see Appendix AG). Two charges interact through the same kernel . The interaction cost is
where is the spatial‐anchoring stiffness (J m⁻¹). The resulting radial force is
In the near‐field limit , this reduces to the familiar Coulomb form:
identifying and .
Thus Coulomb’s law and the constant emerge directly from anchoring costs—no vacuum field, no extra postulates.