Stellar nucleosynthesis

Protons repel one another. In RSI, this is because each proton's wake in the field clashes with the other's and raises the pressure between them. The background 0.73 N tension of deep space is too weak to push two protons close enough for their Pressure Shadows to overlap. So heavy atoms such as iron or uranium cannot form on their own in empty space. Elements up to iron are made in stars. Heavier ones, such as uranium, are built mostly by neutrons, which feel no such repulsion, captured in aging stars, stellar explosions and collisions of neutron stars.

They need a forge. RSI describes a star as a macroscopic resonant cavity: a large, local gravity well where the medium is deeply slackened and every layer of the star presses down on the layers beneath it. The weight of those layers physically rams protons together at the core.

Once the star's gravity pushes protons past their repulsive boundary, their density shadows overlap. Then the Topological Casimir Effect of 8.23 × 10²⁸ Pa takes over. This is the outside pressure of the field, and it locks the protons permanently into a heavy nucleus.