Dust Rings as Planetary Remnants A Disintegration Hypothesis

The prevailing interpretation of circumstellar dust rings as planet-forming regions faces unresolved mechanical problems: the absence of pressure gradients sufficient to drive aggregation, the meter-size barrier preventing growth from pebbles to planetesimals, and the logical contradiction of planets clearing gaps in disks from which they supposedly formed. This paper proposes an alternative interpretation—that observed dust rings represent the remnants of disintegrated planetary bodies rather than precursors to forming ones. Within the Webb Mechanical Metric (WMM) framework, differentiated bodies maintain structural integrity through active core dynamics generating field structure. When core spin ceases, structural failure occurs with preferential mass shedding at the equator—the zone of least resistance. The resulting debris forms toroidal ring structures at the orbital radius of the former body. Observational evidence from the Main Asteroid Belt, Kuiper Belt, Haumea system, and exoplanetary debris disks surveyed by ALMA, JWST, and the 2025-2026 ARKS program consistently supports the disintegration interpretation over the formation narrative.