Abstract Fundamental discrepancies exist among the foundational postulates of classical mechanics, relativity and quantum mechanics, leaving long-standing open physical puzzles including the origin of the arrow of time, quantum measurement collapse and the nature of spacetime. This paper proposes a self-consistent unified physical paradigm: the physical essence of a reference frame is the selective filtering of the full degrees of freedom of a system. All classical, relativistic and quantum physical theories constitute effective reduced descriptions of degrees of freedom under specific rules imposed by reference frames. Core phenomena such as temporal irreversibility, wave-function collapse, the constancy of the speed of light and the quantum-classical transition are not fundamental ontological properties of the universe, but emergent effects arising from filtering mappings introduced by finite-bandwidth observers. This work establishes an axiomatic framework for reference frames and degree-of-freedom filtering, defining projection filtering mappings, the principle of vanishing relative degrees of freedom, and the dimensionless filtering ratio. Within this framework, we reconstruct classical mechanics, special and general relativity, quantum decoherence and quantum measurement theory. Three categories of irreversible mechanisms — statistical coarse-graining, environmental partial-trace decoherence and time-domain sampling truncation — are integrated into a single mathematical structure. A universal dimensionless filtering ratio is defined. We clarify that the continuity of the control parameter does not imply that observables must evolve smoothly. Conceptually, the system can exhibit three regimes: quantum superposition, intermediate transition and classical state. Experiments on quantum bits at the Weizmann Institute provide preliminary observational hints, yet further verification is required; no specific form of the response curve is assumed in this paper. Three falsifiable quantitative predictions are put forward, involving attosecond spectroscopy, decoherence of superconducting qubits and cold-atom interferometry. We compare the present paradigm with relational quantum mechanics, QBism and consistent histories, discuss the ontological implications of time, observers and irreversibility, and outline extensions towards quantum gravity and cognitive science.
Abstract Fundamental discrepancies exist among the foundational postulates of classical mechanics, relativity and quantum mechanics, leaving long-standing open physical puzzles including the origin of the arrow of time, quantum measurement collapse and the nature of spacetime. This paper proposes a self-consistent unified physical paradigm: the physical essence of a reference frame is the selective filtering of the full degrees of freedom of a system. All classical, relativistic and quantum physical theories constitute effective reduced descriptions of degrees of freedom under specific rules imposed by reference frames. Core phenomena such as temporal irreversibility, wave-function collapse, the constancy of the speed of light and the quantum-classical transition are not fundamental ontological properties of the universe, but emergent effects arising from filtering mappings introduced by finite-bandwidth observers. This work establishes an axiomatic framework for reference frames and degree-of-freedom filtering, defining projection filtering mappings, the principle of vanishing relative degrees of freedom, and the dimensionless filtering ratio. Within this framework, we reconstruct classical mechanics, special and general relativity, quantum decoherence and quantum measurement theory. Three categories of irreversible mechanisms — statistical coarse-graining, environmental partial-trace decoherence and time-domain sampling truncation — are integrated into a single mathematical structure. A universal dimensionless filtering ratio is defined. We clarify that the continuity of the control parameter does not imply that observables must evolve smoothly. Conceptually, the system can exhibit three regimes: quantum superposition, intermediate transition and classical state. Experiments on quantum bits at the Weizmann Institute provide preliminary observational hints, yet further verification is required; no specific form of the response curve is assumed in this paper. Three falsifiable quantitative predictions are put forward, involving attosecond spectroscopy, decoherence of superconducting qubits and cold-atom interferometry. We compare the present paradigm with relational quantum mechanics, QBism and consistent histories, discuss the ontological implications of time, observers and irreversibility, and outline extensions towards quantum gravity and cognitive science.
Abstract The transition from microscopic reversible dynamics to macroscopic irreversible thermodynamics in statistical mechanics, the transformation from pure states to mixed states during quantum decoherence, and the transition from quantum superposition states to classical definite states in quantum measurement have long been regarded as three independent fundamental physical puzzles. This paper demonstrates that the three processes share a unified mathematical root: the filtering, truncation or projection of system degrees of freedom renders the information carried by partial degrees of freedom unreconstructable within the reduced description framework, and irreversibility spontaneously emerges in the remaining description space. Based on the rigorous derivation of Hilbert’s sixth problem proposed by Deng et al., Zurek’s environment-induced decoherence theory, and the three-stage model of temporal relativity proposed by the author, this paper extracts the mathematical structure of the three types of physical processes and constructs an axiomatic unified framework. This paper further clarifies that various filtering operations are essentially equivalent to the selection of reference frames by the observation system; any descriptive subject with finite information bandwidth must select a reference benchmark, and the arrow of time is an emergent characteristic of this selection behavior under reduced description. This paper distinguishes between global information conservation and local unreconstructable information, emphasizing that the theoretical framework does not violate unitary quantum evolution, and proposes quantitative predictions verifiable by attosecond physics and superconducting quantum experiments.
Abstract The century-long Bohr–Einstein debate over the foundations of quantum mechanics appears to be an ontological dispute concerning whether physical reality exists objectively. In essence, however, it stems from the two sides implicitly adopting different hierarchical reference frames without explicit clarification. Based on the degree-of-freedom filtering framework, this paper proposes a hierarchical reference frame model. At the birth of quantum mechanics lies a fundamental reference-frame amnesia: the theory first defines eigenstates within the abstract Hilbert space, which mathematically refer to global possibilities without introducing any reference frame (Level 0). Nevertheless, concrete calculations rely on space-time reference frames to construct wave functions, and the superposition exhibited by the latter is then termed “quantum superposition”. The transition from toconstitutes a genuine, irreversible introduction of a reference frame, realizing a filtering mapping from to . Insufficient sampling rates in early experimental instruments statistically lent superficial support to this amnesia. Recent high-precision experiments gradually reveal that the so-called “superposition state” is largely an apparent phenomenon arising from limited measurement bandwidth. Within this model, Bohr’s “indeterminate state” requires dual judgment: his intention points to Level 0, yet his practical standpoint resides at Level 1. Einstein’s “determinate state” corresponds to physical states presupposing space-time as the reference frame. The century-long arguments surrounding the EPR paradox and Bell inequalities are essentially deepened manifestations of this hierarchical confusion. This paper further demonstrates that the framework offers a unified account of the measurement problem, wave–particle duality, the Fourier limit relation and quantum Zeno effect, delayed-choice experiments, quantum entanglement, quantum tunneling, and other phenomena. Without introducing extra dimensions or parallel worlds, the framework merely elevates “reference frame” from a background assumption to a core variable, providing a self-consistent, intuitive and unified epistemological foundation for the foundations of quantum mechanics.
This article is the third and final part of a three-paper sequence developing Ontological Field Theory (OFT) as a unified framework grounding quantum mechanics in foundational ontological principles. The trilogy is structured as follows: Part I — Conceptual Necessity:Why Quantum Mechanics Is Inevitable: Ontological Continuity and the Necessity of Quantum Dynamics establishes that quantum mechanics follows necessarily from minimal requirements on coherent being, independently of specific physical postulates. Part II — Technical Realization:Derivation of the Schrödinger Equation from Ontological Field Theory provides the explicit field-theoretic derivation showing how the Schrödinger equation emerges as the non-relativistic limit of a covariant ontological field. Part III — Critical Context:Why Classical Physics Is an Approximation: Decoherence, Coarse-Graining, and the Limits of Determinism explains why classical determinism and trajectories arise only as emergent, approximate descriptions of fundamentally quantum and relational dynamics. Each article is logically self-contained, but the full argument is distributed across the three contributions. The conceptual analysis motivates the mathematics; the mathematics grounds the physics; and the critical examination situates classical intuition as a limiting case rather than a foundation. The papers are intended to be read as a coherent whole. We argue that quantum mechanics is not an arbitrary empirical framework but an inevitable consequence of minimal ontological requirements. Assuming only that being must exist necessarily, remain consistent, be relational, and admit self-reference, we show that classical deterministic physics is structurally insufficient. Quantum dynamics emerges as the unique low-energy realization of coherent ontological continuity. This work completes the ontological grounding of quantum mechanics by clarifying why it could not have been otherwise.
This article presents a novel foundational framework for physics, grounded in a minimalist vectorial ontology. I propose that the unified fabric of reality is described by a fundamental abstract state space F, whose elements are normed vectors Ψ. From this single premise, a complete axiomatization of space-time and quantum phenomena is derived. The core innovation is the definition of space and time not as independent continua, but as complementary projections of the state vector: Ψ = (S, T). A set of nine axioms is introduced, imposing constraints on these components: their magnitudes are equal (|S| = c|T|), their directions are antiparallel (S = -T), and their evolution is a norm-preserving unitary redistribution. From these purely algebraic and geometric relations, I demonstrate the emergence of Minkowskian space-time with its Lorentzian metric, the invariant speed of light c, and a causal structure defined by the connectivity of F. The framework naturally incorporates quantum mechanics by identifying unitary evolution on F as the fundamental dynamical principle, with measurement and classicality arising via environmental decoherence and the dynamical selection of pointer states (Axiom IX). This work offers a path toward resolving the quantum gravity problem by suggesting that both geometry and quantum states are manifestations of a deeper vectorial substrate, thereby unifying relativity and quantum theory within a single, observer-independent mathematical structure.
We present a unified and minimal theoretical framework addressing the quantum-classical transition, the measurement problem, and the emergence of the arrow of time, grounded in gravitational physics. Building on the insight that quantum superpositions of mass distributions necessarily imply superpositions of gravitational potentials, we show that such states are unavoidably associated with superpositions of proper times due to gravitational time dilation. By extending the system Hilbert space to include a temporal degree of freedom, we demonstrate that matter-time entanglement leads naturally to effective decoherence when the time degree of freedom is traced out. The resulting reduced dynamics takes the form of a Lindblad master equation derived from an underlying unitary evolution. This framework reproduces the correct microscopic and macroscopic limits, clarifies the relation to Diósi-Penrose-type models, and provides a coherent account of classicality and temporal irreversibility without postulating observers, environmental decoherence as fundamental, or objective wavefunction collapse.
This article is the first part of a three-part series developing Ontological Field Theory (OFT), a unified framework grounding quantum mechanics in foundational ontological principles. The trilogy is structured as follows: Part I — Conceptual Necessity:Why Quantum Mechanics Is Inevitable: Ontological Continuity and the Necessity of Quantum Dynamics establishes that quantum mechanics follows necessarily from minimal requirements on coherent being, independently of specific physical postulates. Part II — Technical Realization:Derivation of the Schrödinger Equation from Ontological Field Theory provides the explicit field-theoretic derivation showing how the Schrödinger equation emerges as the non-relativistic limit of a covariant ontological field. Part III — Critical Context:Why Classical Physics Is an Approximation: Decoherence, Coarse-Graining, and the Limits of Determinism explains why classical determinism and trajectories arise only as emergent, approximate descriptions of fundamentally quantum and relational dynamics. Each article is logically self-contained, but the full argument is distributed across the three contributions. The conceptual analysis motivates the mathematics; the mathematics grounds the physics; and the critical examination situates classical intuition as a limiting case rather than a foundation. The papers are intended to be read as a coherent whole. We argue that quantum mechanics is not an arbitrary empirical framework but an inevitable consequence of minimal ontological requirements. Assuming only that being must exist necessarily, remain consistent, be relational, and admit self-reference, we show that classical deterministic physics is structurally insufficient. Quantum dynamics emerges as the unique low-energy realization of coherent ontological continuity. This work complements explicit field-theoretic derivations by clarifying why quantum mechanics could not have been otherwise.