Axiomatic Emergence C; The Physical Origin of Category Theory
Abstract
This paper proposes and develops a research framework for deriving fundamental mathematical structures from underlying physical axioms. We prove that,starting from two basic principles that a self-referential computational system mustsatisfy Information Conservation (A1) and Computability (A2) the mathematicaldescription of its evolutionary process is necessarily organized into a specific category. The objects of this category correspond to discrete semantic levels of thesystem state, and the morphisms are completely positive trace-preserving (CPTP)maps, which directly embody the constraint of information conservation. The tensor product structure and dagger structure possessed by the category originate,respectively, from the parallel operations permitted by computability and the formal time-reversal symmetry implied by information conservation. Ultimately, wesystematically derive a complete dagger-compact category. Distinct from purelymathematical constructions, the credibility of this framework is rooted in an empirically testable physical prediction: in a quantum processor, the complexity growthdynamics of the system state should exhibit a periodic oscillation pattern related tothe logarithm of the system size (ln N). This explicit prediction provides a crucialfalsification condition for the theory.
Fields of Study & Subjects
Quantum Mechanics and Applications
Computability
Logic
AI Algorithms
Quantum Computing Algorithms and Architecture
Publication details
- Journal / source
- Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
- Publication date
- 18 January 2026
- Document type
- Preprint