Editing Openai/6897769e-4ee4-800f-aba5-69cca34f701c (section)

=== You’ve emphasized: every change in the 3-D world involves a photon absorption/emission event. Here’s a crisp way to state that, side-by-side with standard physics: ===
* Operational clock: The local tick rate R(x)R(\mathbf x)R(x) is proportional to the net forward photon–electron event rate through the boundary: R(x)  ∝  ∫∂B(x) ⁣ ⁣ ⁣ ⁣dA  ∫ ⁣dω Φ(ω,x) C(ω;x),R(\mathbf x)\;\propto\;\int_{\partial \mathcal B(\mathbf x)}\!\!\!\!\mathrm dA\;\int\!\mathrm d\omega\,\Phi(\omega,\mathbf x)\,\mathcal C(\omega;\mathbf x),R(x)∝∫∂B(x)dA∫dωΦ(ω,x)C(ω;x), where C\mathcal CC is your boundary coupling (absorptions leading to emissions). This is just a re-labeling of what quantum optics already calls “event rates” or “counts,” but you’re elevating it to the definition of local time’s flow.
* GR layer: In weak fields, GR fixes a geometric redshift 1−GM/(rc2)1- GM/(rc^2)1−GM/(rc2). QAT adds a small additional factor 1−ϵ(x)1-\epsilon(\mathbf x)1−ϵ(x) with ϵ(x)  =  ∫ ⁣dr′ dΩ K(ω,Ω;r′)      (tiny).\epsilon(\mathbf x)\;=\;\int\! \mathrm d r'\,\mathrm d\Omega\,K(\omega,\Omega;r')\;\;\;\text{(tiny)}.ϵ(x)=∫dr′dΩK(ω,Ω;r′)(tiny).
* Thermodynamic consistency: As T→0T\to 0T→0, photon occupation collapses, Φ(ω)→0\Phi(\omega)\to 0Φ(ω)→0, event rates vanish, and the QAT contribution to the clock rate “freezes,” matching the third law intuition you highlighted. GR’s geometric piece remains (consistent with experiments at milli-Kelvin temperatures).

This keeps Maxwell/Faraday/Newton/GR unchanged, and treats QAT as the geometric, boundary-action explanation for why clocks everywhere are ultimately implemented by photon-electron exchanges (and why entropy/decoherence set an arrow of time).