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Physics Laws Written as Pure Number Ratios
A plain-language version of “The Ostrowski Dimensionless Reformulation: A Systematic Compilation of Fundamental Physics Equations in Planck Units”
The short version
This paper collects many important physics formulas and rewrites each one as a ratio of pure numbers. The authors argue that ordinary physics formulas secretly favor one way of measuring numbers. Their new form treats all ways equally. The paper also lists five future research paths, but none are finished yet.
Why ordinary formulas favor one number system
Physics formulas usually include fixed numbers like the speed of light. These fixed numbers only make sense in our everyday number system, called the real numbers. But a math result from over a century ago shows there are other complete number systems, one for each prime number. A formula with the speed of light in it cannot be used in these other systems. The authors call this problem "Archimedean-privileging." It means ordinary physics assumes one number system is special. This is the ordinary number system where numbers can be arbitrarily large, like the real numbers we use for measuring.
The authors solve this by turning every quantity into a ratio. A ratio compares something to a tiny natural unit, like the Planck length or Planck mass. These ratios are pure numbers. Pure numbers work the same way in every number system. The authors call this idea "place-democracy." This is the property of working equally in all number systems, not favoring the ordinary one.
How the reformulation works
The paper sorts many formulas into groups based on which fixed numbers they contain. Some need only one fixed number. Others need several. A few are already pure ratios. For each formula, the authors divide every quantity by its natural unit. The fixed numbers cancel out. What remains is a cleaner relationship between ratios.
The authors prove this is always possible using a standard result from checking that units match on both sides of an equation. Nothing about the physics changes. Only the way we write it changes. The fixed numbers were never part of nature's laws. They were just part of our human choice of units.
What ratios really mean
The authors stress that every "constant" in physics is really a ratio in disguise. The speed of light is the ratio of space interval to time interval. The fine-structure constant is the ratio of two lengths in atomic physics. This is the ratio that describes how strongly light interacts with matter. Even the number pi is best understood as the ratio of a circle's edge to its width, not as a decimal. The decimal is just one number system's way of writing that ratio.
This matters because some ratios can be evaluated in all number systems at once. The authors call this "ratio primacy." This is the idea that ratios come first and work everywhere. It is the core idea behind their whole program.
Connections between different number systems
The paper maps out how different number systems might match different parts of physics. The everyday system handles ordinary space and time. A system based on the smallest prime might handle quantum bits. A system based on the next prime might handle the three families of particles. A system based on the next prime might handle patterns in particle masses.
The authors build "bridges" between formulas in these different systems. But they admit these bridges are speculative. They are part of a larger research program, not proven results.
What the paper does not show
The paper does not prove that nature actually uses these other number systems. It only shows that physics formulas *can* be written to work equally in all of them. The authors call this a "hygiene standard," not a physical discovery.
The paper does not give a mechanism that fixes particle masses. It proposes that masses might come from fixed points on a branching diagram used to organize number systems, like a family tree for number relationships. But this is an open problem, not a solution.
The paper does not complete its five research programs. They are listed as future work with timelines from six months to two years. The authors explicitly state that their approach to combining all number systems at once is "ill-defined" in their current work and needs rigorous treatment.
The paper does not claim that its new form of the formulas changes any predictions. The physics stays the same. Only the framing changes.
Words used here
- Archimedean
- the ordinary number system where numbers can be arbitrarily large, like the real numbers we use for measuring
- p-adic
- a number system based on divisibility by a prime number, where size works differently than in ordinary counting
- Planck units
- natural measuring units so tiny that everyday constants become simple numbers like one
- place-democracy
- the property of working equally in all number systems, not favoring the ordinary one
- Bruhat-Tits tree
- a branching diagram used to organize p-adic numbers, like a family tree for number relationships
Learn more in plain language
- Number theorySimple English Wikipedia
- Quantum field theoryWikipedia (English, more technical)
- Renormalization groupWikipedia (English, more technical)
- P-adic numberSimple English Wikipedia
- Planck unitsSimple English Wikipedia
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For specialists: the technical digest, quoted from the paper
In the paper's words
Systematic compilation and dimensionless reformulation of 53 fundamental physics equations across ten disciplines, motivated by the Ostrowski Dimensionless Mandate. Dimensional formulations implicitly privilege the Archimedean completion of the rationals per Ostrowski theorem (1916). All quantities expressed as pure-number ratios to Planck-scale counterparts (ħ=c=G=k_B=1).
The abstract, verbatim, and its opening sentence is the claim. Every line below is quoted from the text.
Numbers it reports
The critical distinction: the Ostrowski/Tate mandate requires dimensionless ratios, but a dimensionless ratio may still be a FUNCTION of scale. $\alpha (\tilde{Q}^{2})$ is dimensionless at every scale — but its numerical value changes from 1/137.036 at Q̃ → 0 (the IR limit) to 1/127.9 at Q̃ = $M_{Z}/E_{P}$ (the Z-boson scale), a 7.14% variation [established — PDG: α⁻¹(0) = 137.036, α⁻¹(M_Z) = 127.9] .
from 2.5 Running Couplings and the Scale-Dependence of Dimensionless QuantitiesEvery formula in §3 that writes "$\alpha$" implicitly means "$\alpha (\tilde{Q}^{2})$ at the formula's characteristic scale": Atomic physics (Bohr radius, Rydberg, hydrogen levels, Thomson): Q̃ ~ $\alpha$ m̃_e → IR value 1/137.036 Quantum Hall / Josephson / conductance: Q̃ at the Landau-level scale → IR value (0.01% correction negligible) Coulomb law: Q̃ ~ 1/r̃ → running with distance Z-pole / electroweak: Q̃ = $M_{Z}/E_{P} \to 1/127.9$ Planck-scale: Q̃ ~ 1 → determined by the running equation The same applies to $\sin^{2}\theta _{W}(\tilde{Q}^{2})$ and G̃_F(Q̃²): the Weinberg angle runs from ~0.23 (low energy) to 0.2312 ($M_{Z}$, MS-bar); the Fermi constant is scale-dependent.
from 2.5 Running Couplings and the Scale-Dependence of Dimensionless QuantitiesA Planck-mass black hole would have ${\tilde{T}}_{H}$ ≈ $1/(8\pi ) \approx 0.04$, corresponding to approximately 4% of the Planck temperature.
from 3.3 General RelativityThe ODR alternative: Represent every physical quantity as a Hensel code — a tuple of residues modulo prime powers: x∈Q↦(x mod p1k1, x mod p2k2, …, x mod pnkn)x∈Q↦(xmodp1k1,xmodp2k2,…,xmodpnkn) Choose primes pipi such that the product P=∏pikiP=∏piki exceeds the maximum denominator and numerator you expect.
from Program II: The Computational Revolution — Exact Rational SimulationsConcrete step: For the lepton sector, construct a 3×3 matrix MijMij whose entries are the cross-ratios of the Compton frequencies.
from Program III: The Mechanism Problem — Fixed Points on the Bruhat-Tits TreeThe special case of \pi: The paradigmatic dimensionless number -- the circumference-to-diameter ratio -- illustrates the same principle. pi as the real number 3.14159... exists only at the Archimedean place; its decimal expansion has no p-adic meaning.
from 2.1 Ostrowski's Theorem and Place-Democracy
How it is done
The central claim is refined from the original v2.0 compilation: dimensional formulations of physical laws implicitly privilege the Archimedean completion of the rational numbers, while dimensionless ratios preserve place-democracy under Ostrowski's theorem (1916).
from AbstractThe mandate is grounded in Ostrowski's theorem (1916), which classifies every non-trivial absolute value on $\mathbb{Q}$ as equivalent either to the standard real absolute value |·|_$\infty$ or to a p-adic absolute value |·|_p for some prime p [established -- Ostrowski, 1916, Acta Mathematica 41:271-284] .
from 1.1 The Ostrowski Dimensionless MandateTheorem (Ostrowski, 1916): Every non-trivial absolute value on $\mathbb{Q}$ is equivalent either to the standard real absolute value |·|_$\infty$ or to a p-adic absolute value |·|_p for some prime p. [established] Proof sketch: Let |·| be a non-trivial absolute value on $\mathbb{Q}$.
from 2.1 Ostrowski's Theorem and Place-DemocracyTheorem: Let F(x₁,..., $x_{n}$; $\hbar , c, G$, $k_{B}$) = 0 be a dimensionally homogeneous physical law.
from 2.2 The Dimensional-Dimensionless Correspondence Theorem
What would falsify it
Key $C_{2}$ cross-formula connections: Spin → B-T vertex: The Zitterbewegung as a p-Adic Observable paper (https://papers.qnfo.org/papers/zbw-majorana-tqc/) proposes that Majorana zero modes have ultrametric signatures readable at $C_{2}$ vertices.
from 2.4 The Completion Lattice and Cross-Formula BridgesFalsifiability condition: The adelic extension would be disconfirmed if any dimensionally homogeneous physics formula, when expressed in dimensionless Planck units, takes a functional form that cannot be expressed as a rational function of ratios — i.e., if F(x̃_1,..., x̃_n) = 0 is not a member of ℚ(x̃_1,..., x̃_n).
from 2.4 The Completion Lattice and Cross-Formula BridgesSuch a formula would be Archimedean-privileging in a sense stronger than mere dimensional convention: its very functional form would require the analytic structure of $\mathbb{R}$. [not yet falsifiable — all known physics formulas reduce to rational relations of dimensionless ratios]
from 2.4 The Completion Lattice and Cross-Formula Bridges
Where the claim stops
It covers 53 fundamental equations but does not include every formula in every subfield.
from 4.3 LimitationsFuture work could extend the inventory to these areas. [speculative] Pedagogical precedent: The external literature provides strong support for the pedagogical value of the dimensionless reformulation.
from 4.3 LimitationsWhile Humpherys's approach is explicitly pedagogical (the "hidden role" is a teaching insight, not an ontological claim), ODR's Ostrowski rationale provides the mathematical justification for why the pedagogical insight has ontological force: the dimensional form literally cannot be evaluated at non-Archimedean places, making the dimensionless form not only clearer but uniquely well-defined across all completions of $\mathbb{Q}$. [established] Additionally, the dimensionless reformulation does not address the question of whether physical laws ARE place-democratic -- it only makes the formulas compatible with such an interpretation if one chooses to adopt it.
from 4.3 Limitations
Where to read
- The Research Roadmap: From Mathematical Hygiene to Physical Prediction1,468 words · 6 min
- Appendix A: Detailed Formula Derivations1,971 words · 9 min
- Appendix B: Calibration Register405 words · 2 min
Read from the paper itself: 50 sections, 13,314 words. Nothing in this digest is written by a model; a line that is not a sentence of the paper is not shown. Have a specific question? Ask this paper.