This work introduces a formal and model-independent criterion for the applicability of object-based descriptions in physics. Objecthood is defined operationally as the structural stability of coarse-grained macrostates under microscopic dynamics, quantified through statistical distance and separation of characteristic timescales. The framework is normative rather than predictive: it does not introduce new physical laws, but clarifies when object-based language is justified and when it necessarily breaks down. An explicit example demonstrates how the abstract stability criterion connects to concrete dynamical parameters without committing to a specific model. The results provide a diagnostic foundation for analyzing limiting regimes in statistical mechanics, quantum theory, and the foundations of physical description. Related work: Onishchuk, Y. Conditions of Objecthood: A Structural Analysis of Energy and Physical States. OSF Registration. DOI: 10.17605/OSF.IO/3FHTC
This work introduces a formal and model-independent criterion for the applicability of object-based descriptions in physics. Objecthood is defined operationally as the structural stability of coarse-grained macrostates under microscopic dynamics, quantified through statistical distance and separation of characteristic timescales. The framework is normative rather than predictive: it does not introduce new physical laws, but clarifies when object-based language is justified and when it necessarily breaks down. An explicit example demonstrates how the abstract stability criterion connects to concrete dynamical parameters without committing to a specific model. The results provide a diagnostic foundation for analyzing limiting regimes in statistical mechanics, quantum theory, and the foundations of physical description. Related work: Onishchuk, Y. Conditions of Objecthood: A Structural Analysis of Energy and Physical States. OSF Registration. DOI: 10.17605/OSF.IO/3FHTC
This registration documents a completed theoretical study in fundamental physics and statistical mechanics. The work introduces a universal, model-independent stability criterion for the applicability of object-based descriptions in physical theories. Objecthood is treated not as an ontological primitive, but as an operationally defined regime characterized by (i) a separation of characteristic timescales and (ii) the capacity to support persistent internal records under coarse-grained observation. A dimensionless stability parameter is defined as the ratio between the exit time from a coarse-grained state and the intrinsic relaxation time of the system. The central result is the identification of a sharp threshold below which identity-based language (localization, persistence, re-identification) becomes physically uncontrolled, independently of microscopic dynamics. The registration serves to time-stamp and formally fix the theoretical formulation, definitions, assumptions, and conclusions presented in the associated preprint. No data collection, experimental intervention, or hypothesis testing is planned. The results are normative rather than predictive: they do not modify equations of motion but constrain the domain of physical validity of object-based descriptions across classical, quantum, and relativistic regimes. This registration is intended to establish priority and transparency for a foundational theoretical contribution at the interface of statistical mechanics, quantum foundations, and information theory.
This project presents a structural and normative analysis of the conditions under which an object-based descriptive language is physically applicable. Rather than proposing new dynamical laws or models of mass generation, the work identifies minimal structural criteria required for interpreting physical states as objects, understood operationally as localized, temporally persistent entities with internal structure. Key concepts include microstate capacity as a measure of internal structural multiplicity, the role of relativistic kinematics in distinguishing lightlike and timelike excitations, and the separation between propagating correlations and object-like states. The analysis is model-independent and applies across classical, quantum, and relativistic regimes. Its conclusions are intended as constraints on interpretation rather than as causal explanations.
The definition of entropy in both classical and quantum contexts relies on a coarse-graining of the underlying microscopic description. While this dependence is widely acknowledged, the physical constraints that determine which coarse-grainings are admissible are rarely made explicit. This issue becomes particularly acute when the universe is treated as a closed system, where no external observer or privileged level of description can be assumed. Any characterization of entropy — including claims about the low-entropy initial conditions of the universe — must then be grounded in descriptions that can be physically instantiated from within the system itself. In this work, we introduce a rigorous operational framework that establishes explicit physical selection principles over the space of admissible descriptions. We organize these criteria into necessary conditions (local accessibility and physical implementation via internal interactions) and practical sufficiency conditions (finite resource requirements anchored in Landauer’s principle, dynamical stability, and effective consistency). To demonstrate the validity of our framework, we introduce a concrete one-dimensional spin-chain toy model, illustrating how mathematically valid global partitions fail to be physically realizable due to dynamic propagation limits and informational constraints. We analyze the far-reaching implications of this restriction across three domains. In classical statistical mechanics, it limits the arbitrariness of macrostate definitions. In quantum theory, it identifies environment-induced decoherence (einselection) not merely as a formal tool, but as the objective dynamical mechanism that forces the emergence of admissible internal partitions. In cosmology, it resolves foundational circularities in the quasi-classical histories framework and reframes the thermodynamic arrow of time as a "doubly relational" property—dependent both on cosmic boundary conditions and on the material limits of internal subsystems. Our framework clarifies the operational status of entropy as an emergent property of physically instantiated descriptions within a universe that observes itself.
This document is part of the Informational Mechanics (IM) framework and is published in the IM-E (Measurement & Operators) series within the IM v0.3 corpus. The paper formalizes an Operator Stability Condition (OSC) that specifies when quantum-mechanical observables exhibit regime-stable invariance under admissible disturbance. Rather than introducing new dynamics or modifying quantum theory, the analysis provides a structural criterion for when operator-defined quantities become persistently comparable and support classical description. Classical emergence is treated as a consequence of operator stability: when observables retain invariant content under admissible measurement and environmental interaction, effective classical structure arises without invoking collapse models, hidden variables, or additional ontological assumptions. The paper introduces no new axioms, dynamical mechanisms, or empirical fits. Its purpose is operational and disciplinary: to clarify the admissibility conditions under which classical description remains scientifically meaningful and to connect foundational admissibility constraints (IM-C series) with downstream structural consequences (IM-D series).
Stability Geometry of Branch Structures in Open Quantum Systems. DOI: https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/RKPTQ. Main paper PDF: tability_Geometry_of_Branch_Structures_in_Open_Quantum_Systems.pdf. Causal–Continuity Stabilization Theory (CCST) characterizes macroscopic causal persistence as a physical stability property of finite substrates, rather than as an ontological feature of the universal wavefunction. In its original formulation, CCST formalized descriptive admissibility: a coarse-grained macroscopic causal history remains well-posed only when thermodynamic dissipation stays below a substrate-dependent bound and when coarse-grained dynamical sensitivity preserves closure. This work extends CCST by addressing a logically distinct question: not only whether a macroscopic description remains admissible within a branch, but whether a branch structure itself can remain dynamically coherent as an organized physical entity under sustained environmental coupling. Although unitary quantum mechanics preserves all components of the global quantum state, organized branch structure may dynamically disperse into microscopic degrees of freedom in open-system dynamics, thereby losing the correlation patterns required for macroscopic organization. We distinguish structural dispersion (loss of branch-level organizational coherence) from Causal Exit (loss of description-level definability on a finite physical substrate), emphasizing that these correspond to stability failures at distinct physical layers and should not be conflated. Using standard open-system effective-action and influence-functional formalisms, we motivate a dynamical weighting over coarse-grained path ensembles: microscopic dynamics induces a non-uniform stability geometry in path space through irreversible dynamical suppression rather than probabilistic selection, without introducing collapse, selection rules, or inter-branch transport. Finally, we introduce a minimal toy model to visualize the qualitative sensitivity of branch-structural persistence under controlled stability thresholds. The model is strictly illustrative and is accompanied by transparent parameter definitions and a reproducible numerical implementation in the appendix.
Causal–Continuity Stabilization Theory (CCST). DOI: https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/N2SF9. This project develops a geometric and thermodynamic formulation of Causal–Continuity Stabilization Theory (CCST) within the Everettian (Many-Worlds) interpretation of quantum mechanics. While decoherence theory explains the emergence of quasi-classical branches, it does not by itself account for the persistence and stability of a specific first-person causal history. CCST addresses this gap by introducing a stability-based interpretive framework grounded in irreversible thermodynamics, information-processing limits, and dynamical sensitivity. Macroscopic causal histories are modeled as trajectories in a coarse-grained state space equipped with an effective metric that encodes thermodynamic resistance to state transitions. The theory distinguishes ontological branch existence (Born weight) from first-person admissibility, proposing a maximum dissipation bound as a condition for sustained causal continuity. Extensions based on dynamical instability, Lyapunov sensitivity, and geometric deviation are used to explain both gradual (soft) transitions and limiting cases of causal exit without invoking wavefunction collapse, probabilistic selection, or inter-branch dynamics. An interpretive extension further clarifies how first-person experience can be treated as a stability-constrained descriptive projection over physically realized histories, preserving full compatibility with unitary quantum evolution. This repository contains the main manuscript and appendices (A–F), presenting the formal structure, interpretive motivation, and conceptual scope of the theory.