The Generative Field: A Unified Ontology for Physics
Year: 2025
Type: peer-review
Abstract: Contemporary physics rests on three remarkably successful but ontologicallydiscordant representational frameworks: general relativity, quantum mechanics,and the Standard Model. Each offers a coherent internal picture of the world, yetthe pictures do not fit together. This paper proposes that their incompatibility isnot a failure of physics but a symptom of mistaking representational structuresfor fundamental ontology. I develop a generative-field ontology in which a singleprimitive field Φ, defined on a minimal pre-geometric domain and constrained bya generative equation G[Φ] = 0, underlies all physical phenomena. Observabletheories arise through invariance-preserving projections that map the primitive fieldinto geometric, quantum, or gauge-theoretic representation spaces. The result is aunified conceptual architecture in which spacetime geometry, quantum dynamics, andgauge interactions emerge as invariant representational slices of a single generativestructure. I analyse the metaphysical commitments of this framework, relate it tostructural realism, wavefunction realism, and spacetime-emergence programmes, andarticulate its explanatory advantages over traditional unification strategies. Thispaper is intended as the conceptual foundation for a series of technical companionworks developing the mathematical and physical consequences of the generative-fieldequation.
Author: Axelkrans, Erik
Language: English
Subfield: Astronomy and Astrophysics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7202043741