Quantum Mechanics as a Theory of Temporally Organized Processes: From de Broglie’s Time Wave via Event Latency to Chronomorphic Reduction

Early quantum mechanics can be read, in a precise sense, as a theory of time. A spatially homogeneous proper periodicity gives rise, under a Lorentz transformation, to a spatiotemporal phase wave; de Broglie’s relation between rest energy and proper frequency then yields λ=h/p, and global phase consistency leads to the quantization of closed structures. This derivation motivates event latency: the wave function describes not the instantaneous ontic state of a persisting object, but the organization of possible events in terms of amplitude and phase. This paper explicitly addresses the previously omitted transition from the physical process to the wave function and formulates it as chronomorphic reduction. Chronomorphic reduction is the controlled local representation of a process by a chromogent χ=A exp⁡(iS/ℏ). Semiclassical analysis provides a controlled formal realization of this construction: the eikonal and transport equations determine phase and amplitude, the symbol calculus reproduces physical parameters, and the quasimode argument establishes the concentration of the reduced representative in the corresponding spectral region. A manifest event establishes a new process boundary; projection is interpreted as a conditioned chronomorphic re-reduction. Quantum-likeness thus denotes not a class of objects defined by size, but the controlled representability of temporally organized event latency. Keywords: time wave; event latency; chronomorphic reduction; chromogent; semiclassical analysis; phase closure; operators; projection