Unified Flavor: Lattice Quantization, Chain Locality, and a Dynamical Origin of Hierarchical Yukawas

Abstract

We present Unified Flavor (UF), a framework that synthesizes the $B$-lattice flavor hierarchy with a dynamical realization based on TeV-scale vectorlike fermion (VLF) chains. Hierarchical Yukawa couplings arise from discrete ninths-quantized lattice exponents enforced by a single flavon $\Phi$ with $\epsilon\equiv\langle\Phi\rangle/\Lambda=1/B$, $B=75/14$. Effective Yukawa entries are generated as algebraic path sums along nearest-neighbor chains of vectorlike quarks (VLQs), factorizing into entry, chain-propagation, and exit amplitudes controlled by the discrete gauge charges. A multi-messenger structure -- in which each Yukawa entry receives coherent contributions from several chain configurations -- generates O(1) complex coefficients whose phases are the physical origin of CP violation. We derive a general chain-inversion theorem, perform systematic perturbative diagonalization of both up- and down-type Yukawa textures, and show that the Cabibbo--Kobayashi--Maskawa (CKM) mixing hierarchy and CP-phase structure emerge naturally from the lattice exponent algebra and multi-messenger interference. All six quark masses are reproduced with O(1) coefficients that are essentially unity. The chain locality simultaneously suppresses dangerous flavor-changing neutral currents (FCNCs) and satisfies electroweak precision constraints, while requiring VLQs with masses in the multi-TeV range accessible at the High-Luminosity Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC). The same discrete gauge symmetry that enforces the lattice structure also protects the Peccei--Quinn axion quality, unifying flavor, CP violation, and the strong CP problem. The framework extends to the lepton sector, reproducing charged-lepton mass hierarchies, the normal-ordered neutrino spectrum, and PMNS mixing with a predictive two-branch octant--$\delta$ correlation testable at DUNE and Hyper-Kamiokande.