represent energy content and transport.
represent one local encoding of that
transport.Foundations, Method, and Boundaries
2026-01-16
One-Sentence Summary. A precise statement of the methodological foundations, assumptions, and limits of the Maxwell Universe Research Program.
Abstract. This document consolidates the guiding principles of the Maxwell Universe Research Program. It fixes the ontological stance, methodological rules, and logical boundaries that unify the program’s published works. The aim is not to introduce new results, but to preserve conceptual coherence, prevent regressions, and enable extension without reintroducing hidden postulates.
Keywords. Maxwell theory, foundations of physics, continuity equation, divergence-free flow, minimal dynamics, field-only ontology, topology
This document exists to prevent loss.
Not loss of results, but loss of discipline.
The Maxwell Universe Research Program is a constrained way of reasoning about physical phenomena starting from experimentally grounded structure, using electromagnetic energy flow as the medium through which causal effects manifest.
That stance must be stated explicitly if the program is to remain coherent under extension, critique, or reinterpretation.
This document therefore specifies:
The program adopts a field-only, flow-first ontology.
Physical reality is described in terms of continuous electromagnetic energy transport in three spatial dimensions, constrained by experimentally abstracted regularities.
No fundamental particles are assumed. No fundamental strings or membranes are assumed. No spacetime substance is assumed.
Electric and magnetic fields are not ontological primitives. They are representational variables used to describe how energy transport is organized.
What is taken as primitive is:
Everything else is description.
“Source-free” does not mean that localized electromagnetic structures do not exist.
It means that no ontological creation or destruction of electromagnetic energy at points is introduced.
Within this program, objects conventionally described as “charges” or “currents” are understood as stable, localized configurations of divergence-free electromagnetic energy flow. These configurations are typically associated with circulation, winding, or topological constraint.
Energy does not originate or terminate at points. All configurations are closed, globally continuous, and dynamically self-consistent.
This mirrors experimental practice: even apparent sources are implemented through boundary conditions, circuits, and global constraints, not literal energy creation.
“Source-free” is therefore not a self-imposed restriction of the framework, but an acknowledgement that energy is not observed to be created or destroyed at points in space.
The program follows a strict methodological rule:
No structure is introduced unless it is required.
This applies to:
If a phenomenon follows from continuity, geometry, or topology, no additional postulate is added.
Minimal does not mean final. Minimal means frugal in assumptions.
A foundational distinction runs through all program documents:
Confusing these leads to false derivations.
Examples:
represent energy content and transport. represent one local encoding of that
transport.The program enforces this separation rigorously.
Only one conservation principle is assumed:
This relation is treated as a description of observed continuous energy transport through space, not as a metaphysical axiom or fundamental restriction.
No independent postulates of momentum conservation, inertia, force, or mass are assumed.
Momentum, inertia, tension, and effective forces are derived as consequences of energy continuity combined with geometry and topology.
This avoids circular reasoning.
Geometry and topology are treated as active constraints, not passive background.
Key consequences established across the program include:
No microscopic constituents are required for these effects to appear.
A critical clarification:
The program does not claim absolute uniqueness.
It claims minimality under explicit constraints.
For example:
Minimality establishes a baseline, not a prohibition.
The program closes the following conceptual gaps, conditionally and explicitly:
Each closure is documented and scoped.
Most foundational confusion in physics arises not from incorrect equations, but from hidden assumptions.
The Maxwell Universe Research Program removes those assumptions deliberately.
What remains is a clear, constrained framework grounded in observation.
This program aims to describe nature using continuity of energy transport, divergence-free structure, and local dynamics only.
Within this framework, observed physical phenomena are understood as organized energy flow through space.
No additional primitives are required.
Continuity, divergence-free structure, and local transport are not interpretations. They are observed regularities.