Relational Differentiation under Global Zero Constraint: Emergence of Spacetime, Entropy, and Fundamental Interactions
Bibliographic record
Abstract
This paper proposes a framework where physical reality emerges through a process of relational differentiation, starting from the assumption that the entire universe is subject to a global zero constraint. Under this constraint, subsystems do not exist independently; all physical structures are defined solely through the differentiation of relations. We introduce an action principle describing this relational differentiation and demonstrate that its variational extremum condition selects a dynamical boundary where the differentiation degrees of freedom vanish. By modeling the relational structure as a graph, we show that this differentiation boundary corresponds to the formation of a spectral gap, thereby securing structural stability. Furthermore, we argue that the spectral dimension at the boundary flows toward a fixed point near 4, providing a dynamical explanation for the origin of spacetime dimensionality. At the differentiation boundary, information becomes localized, leading to the natural emergence of entropy, horizons, and the area law. The relational residual modes that survive after differentiation are interpreted as gauge degrees of freedom, offering a structural origin for gravity and gauge interactions. Moreover, the monotonic extinction of differentiation degrees of freedom defines the arrow of time and irreversibility, while quantum probability and the measurement problem are derived from the structural limitation of only partially observing global relational information. The present work does not aim to replace existing physical theories but provides a unified meta-principle explaining why spacetime, interactions, entropy, time, and quantum probability appear together.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.005 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.004 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.002 |
| Research integrity | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".