The Generative Structure of Baryons: An Event-Ontological Mechanism for Protons and Neutrons in Energy Quantum Theory

We investigate a generative mechanism for baryon structure within the framework of Energy Quantum Theory (EQT), with particular emphasis on its implications for the proton--neutron mass difference. In EQT, physical reality is constituted by sequences of energy-quantum events carrying intrinsic triadic attributes---frequency, phase, and direction---while spacetime and matter are understood as stable transient patterns arising from the dynamical freezing of such events. We propose that protons and neutrons may be modeled as a Y-type four-event condensate, consisting of one high-frequency central event and three near-frequency peripheral events. In an effective description, the central event corresponds to gluonic field energy, while the peripheral events correspond to current-quark degrees of freedom. Within this framework, two key results emerge naturally and are consistent with quantum chromodynamics (QCD): (i) the dominant contribution to baryon mass originates from the central event, with an energy scale of approximately $\sim 930$\,MeV, in agreement with the established view that baryon mass is primarily gluon-dominated; and (ii) the neutron is slightly heavier than the proton ($\Delta M \approx 1.3$\,MeV), a difference traced to distinct phase configurations of the peripheral events ($u:\theta=0$, $d:\theta=\pi$), which induce enhanced phase tension and a small shift in the collective frequency spectrum. We emphasize that EQT is not intended as a replacement for QCD, but rather as a complementary description at a deeper generative level. In the continuum and large-number limits, QCD may be regarded as an effective theory emergent from EQT. The present work demonstrates how this event-ontological framework can reproduce several key features of hadron physics at a semi-quantitative level, while offering a possible generative origin for certain input parameters of the Standard Model. All numerical implementations and reproduction codes are publicly available.