Dark Matter Defined: A Structural Consequence of Pre-Metric Instantiation

Dark matter is traditionally introduced as an additional constituent to account for gravitational phenomena unexplained by luminous matter. In this work, we adopt a different strategy. Rather than proposing a new particle or field, we ask what forms of structure are permitted by quantum admissibility prior to metric instantiation, and which of these necessarily persist as gravitationally active but electromagnetically silent entities.

We show that dark matter emerges naturally as a structural phase of instantiation: the class of instantiated triadic structures whose global closure persists while electromagnetic coherence does not. This definition follows from minimal pre-metric assumptions and does not rely on new degrees of freedom or phenomenological tuning. Inflation is interpreted as the metric re-expression of this closure rather than its origin.

The result is a definition of dark matter that is ontological rather than particulate, structural rather than additive, and compatible with existing gravitational observations while remaining agnostic about specific realisations.