Working repository for the SSV theoretical-physics paper series.
The physical vacuum is modelled as a real macroscopic medium described by an order parameter Ψ (a logarithmic Schrödinger equation, LogSE, with a chiral-shear term and a saturation potential). Matter is topological defects in Ψ. The programme set out to derive particle masses, the forces, gravity, time, and black-hole ontology from that single medium and two inputs (mₑ, α).
Status: closed (2026-06). The programme is no longer active. No surviving route delivers the quantities it set out to derive. What the framework reproduced were the forms of analogue/ emergent gravity (already known); what it could not deliver were the magnitudes (G, Λ/a₀, the particle masses). The recurring diagnosis — "form yes, magnitude no" — and the salvageable content are written up in papers/conclusions/. This repository is now an archive plus that post-mortem.
- Conclusions / post-mortem — start here
- The recurring diagnosis
- Paper series and outcomes
- Repository layout
- Computation (
instruments/) - Docs and workflow
The honest accounting of what the programme produced and what survives for mainstream physics lives in papers/conclusions/:
| Document | What it is |
|---|---|
| Lessons from a closed programme | The post-mortem. Folds the two notes below into one document, organised around the form-yes-magnitude-no diagnosis; covers the surviving methodology, the reproduced forms, the failures, the structural reason, and five transferable lessons. |
| Conclusion A | Foundations reading — finite-update-rate time dilation and presentist emergent gravity; where the ontology sits relative to Jacobson/Verlinde/Padmanabhan and the de Sitter observer-algebra programme. Honest home: philosophy of physics. |
| Conclusion B | The mode-counting negative — a concrete superfluid holographic screen reproduces the area law (expected, from locality) but undershoots G by ~38 orders (O(10) Bogoliubov modes vs 1/α_G ≈ 1.7×10³⁸). A demonstrated instance of the Sakharov / Susskind–Uglum species problem. |
One pattern runs through every sector. SSV reproduces the form of the right answer cheaply, and concedes the magnitude: time dilation (form yes, G no); horizon area law (form yes, coefficient no); Hawking temperature (form yes, factor-of-4 no); flat rotation curves (form yes, halo amplitude not derived); cosmological a₀ (form yes, scale conceded); masses (scales handed in, the rest fitted). The reason is structural: kinematic forms follow from locality and symmetry, which an emergent medium inherits for free, while the coupling constants live in the microscopic theory below the effective cutoff (trans-Planckian; Volovik). The most durable outputs are therefore the negatives.
The drafts and their compiled PDFs remain in papers/; the human-readable PDFs are in
papers/pdf/. Outcomes below reflect the closed state.
| Paper | Title | Outcome at closure |
|---|---|---|
| I | Topological Defects — Geometric Origin of Matter | Mass ladder demoted to a numerical coincidence, not a derived spectrum; muon-as-breather no-go (#78); proton geometry minimum found (#77) but N_Y/F do not close the sector. |
| II | Forces as Hydrodynamic Modes | Programmatic. EM = Goldstone phase mode, photon question closed (#138); W-mass scale mₑ/α² derived, prefactor an O(1) coincidence; the "effective spin-2" GW prediction was falsified and withdrawn (#159). |
| III | Irreversible Time and Wake Entropy | Arrow of time is a Boltzmann coarse-graining, not a new resolution of Loschmidt; reversal-echo shows the bulk dynamics is conservative and T-symmetric (#137). |
| IV | Gravity as Update-Capacity Gradient | Time-delay (Einstein-1911) half delivered in form; the Bjerknes source mechanism for Φ was falsified (#119); G is an empirical input. |
| V | Condensate Black Holes | Analogue-gravity ontology re-derived (Visser): acoustic horizon, no singularity, Unruh/Hawking form. Horizon area law earned from locality (#155); G conceded — see Conclusion B. |
| VI | Galactic Rotation Curves and Morphology | CBH-driven mechanisms falsified (#122/#124); a circulation halo + ordinary Newtonian self-gravity reproduce flat curve and spiral arms with no dark matter, no central black hole, but the halo amplitude is not derived (pure constant-v_h falsified on SPARC). |
| VII-a | Quantum Mechanics from Hydrodynamics | Madelung re-derivation; measurement as reconnection. Re-framing, not new. |
| VII-b | Emergent Geometry and the Dissolution of Quantum Gravity | Jacobson route in form with G as input; gravity is structurally scalar — no spin-2 graviton / tensor GW (the durable no-go). |
| VIII | Cosmogony from the Permissive Void | Owns the low-entropy past hypothesis (never supplied); Λ/a₀ magnitude conceded in parallel with G. |
| IX | CMB and Primordial Phonon Bath | Not written (main.tex never drafted, #100). |
| Alpha | Fine-Structure Constant from Toroidal Vortex Geometry | Framing only; α remains an empirical input (aspect-ratio identification is a coincidence). |
| Goldstone | Electromagnetic Propagation and the Goldstone Mode | Photon identified as the gapless Goldstone/Bogoliubov phase mode at c. |
| Path | Contents |
|---|---|
| papers/conclusions/ | The post-mortem and the two conclusion notes (.tex + .pdf) |
| papers/ | Manuscript drafts, supplemental notes, result notes, checkpoint files |
| papers/pdf/ | Compiled, human-readable PDFs of the series |
| instruments/ | Computational scripts grouped by paper, plus tools/ (provenance) and the test/ suite — see instruments/README.md |
| notes/ | Working notes, objections log, Volovik mapping, lepton-ladder note |
| docs/ | Roadmap, numerical roadmap, conventions, claim-status, issue-workflow |
.github/ISSUE_TEMPLATE/ |
Issue templates (paper, derivation, numerics, objection) |
The computational backbone is a 3D static minimiser for topological defects in the LogSE, plus
per-sector batteries (reconnection, horizon entanglement entropy, rotation-curve N-body, etc.).
Analytic claims were backed by a tested script and a result note; see instruments/README.md
for the full layout and the test/ suite. Notable load-bearing instruments referenced by the
post-mortem:
instruments/paper_iii/reversal_echo.py— reconnection time-reversibility (the arrow-of-time result, #137)instruments/paper_v/horizon_entanglement_entropy.py— area-law verification (#155, Conclusion B)instruments/paper_v/dumb_hole_surface_gravity.py— acoustic surface gravity + Clausius closure (#155)instruments/paper_i/vortex_core_mode_spectrum.py— the O(10) bound-mode count behind the G shortfall (#78/#155)
The programme ran issue-driven with pre-registration and a hard negative-results rule — the methodology the post-mortem flags as its most transferable product.
- docs/roadmap.md — paper plan (historical)
- docs/numerical-minimisation-roadmap.md — numerical programme plan (historical)
- docs/numerical-conventions.md — units, conventions
- docs/claim-status.md — compact claim/gapbox status index
- docs/issue-workflow.md — how issues, pre-registrations, and result notes were used