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Structural Determination Theory and the Quantum Puzzles: A Comprehensive Meta-Structural Analysis
What if the measurement problem, Bell non-locality, the quantum-classical boundary, and the information paradox all have the same underlying structure — and that structure can be read off from a single ontological axiom? This paper applies **Structural Determination Theory (SDT)** to thirty-five open problems in quantum foundations. SDT derives all its commitments from one axiom — *reality consists of distinctly differentiated structure* — without presupposing physics, time, or space. Its central formal tool is a fourfold classification of determination events by input-output cardinality (∣E∣,∣S∣)(|E|, |S|) (∣E∣,∣S∣): Type I (single in, single out), Type II (single in, multiple out), Type III (multiple in, single out), Type IV (multiple in, multiple out). The methodological core is an epistemological observation: any measurement must physically encode its result somewhere, which requires a probe particle — making every measurement a Type IV determination by necessity. This dissolves the measurement problem structurally: measurement is an ordinary multi-particle collision, not a special event needing a special mechanism. The main results, organized into seven progressive clusters: Measurement problem dissolves under the read-out principle. Quantum-classical transition is continuous variation of determination-graph predecessor density, with no ontological boundary. *Bell non-locality* is borne by a joint-state decomposition Type IV determination (DAD_A DA) that synchronously produces correlated stable states for both sides, followed by a probe interaction (DBD_B DB) constrained via Pathway Two — no signaling, no action at a distance. Entangled pairs (e.g., SPDC output) are single realized-structure members with internally joint specifications of particle roles; this grounds entanglement non-locality without two-particle reductionism. Information preservation in black-hole evaporation follows from non-retraction of the realized-structure set, independently of unitarity. Time emergence: the Wheeler-DeWitt equation's absence of time is consistent with SDT because SDT derives time from the partial-order structure of the determination graph, not as a presupposed background. Three supplementary analyses extend the scope: decoherence receives a two-level structural account (microscopic Type IV interactions + coarse-grained Type II branching); the spin-statistics theorem is located as a GG G-internal consistency requirement rather than a meta-structural theorem; spontaneous symmetry breaking is analyzed via structural openness (∣A∣>1|A|>1 ∣A∣>1) in symmetry-orbit directions — with Goldstone masslessness as the entity-theoretic expression of that openness, and the Higgs mechanism as a GG G-modification that closes it. SDT is not an interpretation of quantum mechanics. It operates one level above: it provides the structural conditions any entity theory of quantum phenomena must satisfy, leaving specific dynamics, probabilities, and particle types to physics. The paper closes with dialogue against ten major interpretive stances (Copenhagen through pilot-wave) and a methodological reflection on the SDT-physics division of labor.
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