arXiv subjects

Harry Sticker

Publications and source records attributed to Harry Sticker.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Projection and Invariance in Scientific Explanation

Any representational enterprise must omit variation in order to function. NASA still uses Newtonian mechanics, though Einstein superseded Newton, and the standard picture of scientific progress cannot explain how. A description that omitted nothing would be identical to its subject and would explain nothing. This paper argues that omission is not a defect but the central structural feature of any enterprise that builds representations from incomplete information. The key concept is projection: a principled mapping from underlying complexity to a descriptive space that partitions states into equivalence classes, omits within-class variation, and makes patterns visible that would otherwise be lost. Projection is simultaneously revelatory and constitutive: it makes genuine invariants tractably accessible while bringing into being the concepts through which they become expressible. The paper distinguishes vertical cases, in which earlier projections survive as limiting cases of more refined successors with recoverable omission, from horizontal cases, in which omission is constitutive, and invariants are accessible only at the level of the projection that defines them. The framework accounts for persistent pluralism in mature sciences, treats the renormalization group as a systematic implementation of the invariant-tracking criterion, and defends a level-relative realism on which higher-level projections reveal genuine structural features of the world. The deepest claim is an inversion of the standard picture: perspectival structure is not a concession to complexity but the condition for invariant detection. A world rich in invariants cannot be exhausted by a single projection.

physics.hist-ph↗

arXiv2026

The Architecture of Inter-Level Representation

Inter-level connections in science routinely require constructs that neither of the connected theories contains. Statistical mechanics requires assumptions such as the Stosszahlansatz to generate thermodynamic irreversibility - assumptions that Hamiltonian mechanics cannot provide. Quantum chemistry offers four incompatible analyses of chemical bonding for the same quantum state, none of which are selected by the Schrodinger dynamics. Molecular genetics has not converged on a stable definition of the gene despite decades of molecular detail. These are not isolated anomalies but instances of a common architectural pattern. The missing apparatus is the bridge theory: a third theoretical role that connects a dynamical theory to an observational theory through a many-to-one inter-level map. That map generates the contingent space - the set of dynamical states compatible with an observational description but not selected by it - whose geometry neither connected theory determines. Completing the bridge theory requires three conditions in order: a Partition that defines observational equivalence classes; a Magnitude that characterizes the geometry and scale of the contingent space; and a Closure that selects or weights its elements. The framework yields an objective distinction between closing and introducing rules, formalized by the Mirror Test, and supports a tripartite taxonomy of emergence. It explains why some inter-level disputes persist and what would be required to resolve them.

physics.hist-ph↗

arXiv2026

Activation and Alignment: A Causal Account of the Scientific Revolution

Standard historiographical approaches to the Scientific Revolution illuminate background conditions but leave three puzzles unresolved: what triggered the initial escalation of inherited tensions, what made early investigative efforts durable, and why natural philosophy became the locus of transformation rather than theology, law, or classical scholarship. This paper develops a causal account by identifying the mechanisms of activation at the individual level and the institutional alignment that converted rare psychological drive into durable research traditions. The trigger architecture operates at two levels. At the individual level, activation occurs when investigators experience inherited puzzles as psychologically intolerable; capture stabilizes inquiry through cognitive, material, and social entanglements; and externalization converts methods into transmissible forms. At the institutional level, role expansion embeds elevated standards into positions; succession ratchets prevent regression through competitive selection; and domain channeling directs institutional energy toward particular fields. A systematic comparison across Islamic, Chinese, and European cases demonstrates that each component is necessary, but none is sufficient on its own. The Scientific Revolution occurred when all components aligned at Padua-Venice and Oxford-London, where corporate autonomy, competitive appointments, and state patronage converged with investigative practices. The Galileo case provides decisive evidence: his selective activation across domains demonstrates that activation operates as a specific mechanism rather than a stable dispositional trait.

physics.hist-ph↗

arXiv2025

The Fine-Structure Constant as a Scaled Quantity

The fine-structure constant alpha approximately 1/137 is traditionally regarded as a fundamental dimensionless parameter. I argue instead that alpha is a scaled quantity that arises only where the structural scales contributed by classical electromagnetism (e), quantum mechanics (h-bar), and special relativity (c) intersect. None of these theories, taken individually, supplies the independent scales required to define alpha. The constant first appears when relativistic corrections are added to the Schrodinger-Bohr description of hydrogen (Sommerfeld), and it becomes the structural coupling in quantum electrodynamics, where quantum and relativistic effects modify the classical electromagnetic interaction. Expressing the governing laws in canonical form reveals this dependence and eliminates representational artifacts that make alpha appear fundamental. The running of alpha in QED further demonstrates its status as a scale-dependent coupling rather than a universal constant. I conclude that alpha is a domain-specific structural ratio reflecting contingent relationships among independent physical scales.

physics.hist-ph↗