Toward a Temporal Scale for Emergent Spacetime

Spatial SU(2) invariance leaves the temporal coefficient free: it forbids mixed temporal–spatial terms but relates the temporal and spatial scalars by no equation, so a spatial normalisation $A_H = 2\lambda$ yields no value of $A_\tau$.

Current Zenodo release: version 2.0 (2026-09-28). Official title: Toward a Temporal Scale for Emergent Spacetime: Spatial SU(2) Invariance Leaves the Temporal Coefficient Free.

Overview

An emergent Lorentzian co-metric on the product $\mathbb{R}_\tau\times\mathrm{Heis}_3(\mathbb{R})$ of an ordering line and a Heisenberg spatial factor carries a temporal coefficient $A_\tau$ and spatial coefficients. A four-dimensional spacetime needs their relative normalisation. Under [H-L] and [H-lift], Q5b gives the rank-three co-metric $\mathrm{diag}(-A_\tau, A_H, A_H, 0)$ and leaves the values of $A_\tau$ and $A_H$ open (open problem Q5b-O3). For a supplied full-rank extension invariant under the spin-one action, Q8 proves that the three spatial coefficients coincide, with common value $2\lambda$ and $\lambda > 0$ undetermined.

Q11 determines what invariance under a spatial $\mathrm{SU}(2)$ action can contribute to the temporal coefficient. The answer is structural: the ordering line carries the trivial representation, and Schur's lemma leaves one free scalar per isotypic component.

Result. Every invariant symmetric form on the cotangent fibre $\mathbb{R}_\tau\oplus W$ is $\alpha\,k_\tau^2 + \beta\,Q_{\mathrm{sp}}$ with $\alpha$ and $\beta$ independent. Invariance excludes mixed temporal–spatial terms but relates the two scalars by no equation: $A_H = 2\lambda$ gives no value of $A_\tau$, in particular not $A_\tau = 2$. Q11 closes a derivation route, not the possibility $A_\tau = 2$.

Main results

Scope. Q11 does not show that $A_\tau = 2$ is false. It shows that spatial $\mathrm{SU}(2)$ invariance does not derive it: the Casimir eigenvalue $2$ refers to one normalisation of the generators and determines no coefficient. Candidate sources of the coupling datum (a saturated capacity bound, the unit advance of the breadth-first front) are listed in the paper as exploratory proposals, not results.

Open problems

Interpretive outlook

Status: interpretation, not a result. In the reading in which $\tau$ is the parameter of projective ordering and the Heisenberg factor carries relational space, spatial isotropy and the unit of time are separate pieces of information. Spatial isotropy fixes the shape of the spatial form and forbids any preferred mixing of time with space, but the rate at which ordering advances relative to spatial relational distance, which a kinematic reading would call the invariant speed, is an independent datum that the representation theory of space alone does not supply.

Relation to the Cosmochrony programme

Q11 answers the temporal half of Q5b-O3 negatively along the representation-theoretic route and names what is missing. It establishes no value of $A_\tau$, of $A_H$, or of their ratio.

References

Jérôme Beau. Toward a Temporal Scale for Emergent Spacetime: Spatial SU(2) Invariance Leaves the Temporal Coefficient Free, 2026. doi:10.5281/zenodo.20098387