From Possibility to Measurement - Fundation of a Structural-Realist Ontology of Physical Reality

We present a minimal ontological framework — the Quantum Reality Framework (QRF) — that motivates and constrains central structural features of quantum mechanics from a single primitive: possibility with actualization possibility and actualization disposition, all three inseparable. The ontological space forms a continuous gradient from pure possibility (PS) through probabilistically structured partial actuality (QS) to full facticity (RS). QS is equipped with a compatibility function kappa: S x S -> [0,1] carrying no metric and no separable tensor structure. A five-stage actualization sequence derives phase, energy, and metric time geometrically from simultaneous being-points. The central structural result (new in v12): the triadic geometry of Stage 3 imposes three constraints on the phase parameter (continuity, additivity, periodicity) that uniquely determine U(1) as the phase group by Lie group theory. The representation exp(i*phi) follows as the unique norm-preserving homomorphism. Interference arises as a structural necessity, not a postulate. The squared modulus emerges as the minimal phase-invariant, interference-capable probability functional. Linearity is not postulated but emerges as a consistency condition of compatibility-weighted phase composition. Schrodinger-type unitary dynamics emerges from time-translation invariance via Noether. Three spatial dimensions emerge as the first stable saturation point. The framework proposes the testable prediction gamma_obs/kappa = E/hbar. A structural connection to the dimensionless ratios of natural constants is the deepest open problem. The present work is a constrained research program, not a completed theory.