Non-Factorable Phase Structure as a Necessary and Sufficient Condition for Gravity-Mediated Entanglement

This work presents a model-independent analysis of gravity-mediated entanglement based on the geometric structure of interaction-induced phase evolution. Using a minimal two-body phase model inspired by recent gravity-mediated entanglement proposals, it is shown that quantum entanglement between initially separable systems arises if and only if the induced phase structure is non-factorable.

The central result identifies a gauge-invariant plaquette phase as a necessary and sufficient operational condition for entanglement generation. When this plaquette invariant is nonzero, standard quantum information diagnostics—such as negativity, concurrence, and Bell–CHSH correlations—confirm the presence of entanglement. When the invariant is eliminated, entanglement vanishes identically, even when individual phase magnitudes remain nonzero.

A comprehensive suite of falsification tests is applied, including local phase factorization, plaquette removal, deterministic and stochastic phase scrambling, permutation symmetry tests, LOCC protocols, causal reordering, and controlled noise injection. Across all tests, entanglement survives exclusively in the presence of non-factorable phase structure. Scaling analyses further demonstrate consistent dependencies on mass, interaction time, separation distance, and superposition size, yielding a distinctive interaction fingerprint incompatible with classical or semiclassical channels.

The framework is fully operational and does not assume a specific theory of quantum gravity. Instead, it provides a concrete, experimentally accessible criterion for probing nonclassical aspects of gravity using near-term interferometric platforms. The results sharpen the interpretational foundations of gravity-mediated entanglement proposals by isolating the minimal structural feature responsible for entanglement generation.