​Interlude: Physical Interactions and Symmetry Breaking as Ontological Acts of Differentiation

Classical physics describes interactions as fundamental forces of nature determining the behavior of particles, fields, and matter through attraction, repulsion, exchange, and coupling. However, in the ontology of differentiation, interaction is seen not as a secondary phenomenon linking already existing objects, but as a primary act through which difference itself—and thus being—becomes structured. No object precedes differentiation, just as no interaction can be understood apart from differentiation itself. Interaction is an ontological act wherein differentiation between elements, structures, or possibilities emerges and is maintained. Fundamental forces, therefore, become specific regimes of differentiation retention—manifestations of Potentiality differentiating itself in stable forms.

Gravitation, according to general relativity, is not a force transmitted between bodies but manifests as a curvature of spacetime determined by the distribution of energy and mass. This curvature is not the consequence of an action, but differentiation: spacetime itself becomes differentiated depending on the density of matter. Classical physics regarded spacetime as a universal background, but in an ontology of differentiation, it emerges as a structure holding differentiation. Mass, accordingly, is not a substance but a form of retained differentiation. Symmetry breaking—such as in local curvature—becomes a necessary condition for differentiability: symmetrical, undifferentiated space cannot support form. Gravity thus emerges as a resonance between differentiating structures, structured as a continuum of retention.

Electromagnetism rests upon differences in charges, directions, and potentials. Electric charge itself is a name for differentiation—a means to establish orientation. Currents, fields, or waves become forms for retaining and propagating differentiation. Spontaneous symmetry breaking, as when ferromagnets transition into a magnetized state, illustrates this process: the system "chooses" a direction not due to external influence but through an internal act of differentiation. The electromagnetic field thus becomes not merely a carrier of interaction, but an expression of differentiation retained within polarity.

The weak interaction most vividly demonstrates an ontology of differentiation. Its properties—violations of time reversal (T), charge inversion (C), and parity (P) symmetries—reveal that physical reality becomes irreversibly differentiating at certain scales. Through weak interaction, the world manifests a distinction between processes and their reversed counterparts. This is not merely physical asymmetry but an ontological boundary wherein Potentiality abandons neutrality. Without this asymmetry, baryon asymmetry underlying the visible universe would not arise, nor would the distinction between existence and non-existence in time. Weak interaction thus structures becoming, rendering it directional.

The strong interaction operates as an internal retention structure. Quarks constituting protons and neutrons cannot be isolated due to confinement: the strong interaction retains differentiation within a closed state, creating stable forms. Gluons, carriers of strong interaction, participate in differentiation via quantum "color." The vacuum of quantum chromodynamics breaks chiral symmetry—differentiating between right- and left-handed spins—generating mass as a result of retained differentiation. Mass, therefore, is not a substantial attribute but an ontological effort: differentiation preserved becomes corporeal.

The Big Bang, from the viewpoint of differentiation ontology, appears as the primary act of differentiation from which the possibility of the physical world itself emerges. At the moment of the Big Bang, Potentiality—being undifferentiated—begins structuring through symmetry breaking: the initial singularity, in which space, time, and matter were indistinct, unfolds into a multiplicity of differentiating nodes. This is not simply expansion of the universe but an event wherein differentiation becomes possible. Energy, space, and time become structured as forms retaining differentiation; subsequent symmetry breakings—such as during the electroweak epoch, where electromagnetic and weak interactions separate—set rhythms by which Potentiality continues differentiating. Thus, the Big Bang is not an absolute temporal origin, but an ontological transition from undifferentiation to differentiation, from Potentiality as pure possibility into structured physical reality.

All four fundamental interactions appear not as forces between pre-existing entities but as regimes of differentiating structuration. They create conditions for form, stability, and relationality, differentiating being itself. Symmetry breaking, in this context, is not destruction but structuring: the event in which Potentiality ceases to be transparent and begins to be retained. Without symmetry breaking, no differentiation is possible; without differentiation, no form emerges. Interactions thus constitute the ontological ground of physics—manifestations of Potentiality in differentiating regimes.

This model also reinterprets the notion of "natural law": not as universal necessity, but as stable differentiating patterns. Laws repeat themselves because differentiation, in these forms, proves capable of retention. Space, time, energy, and particles are not categories of substance but configurations of differences. Potentiality, operating within these structures, is the inherent openness of differentiating to structuration. Рhysical interactions are acts of differentiation that make being possible. Physics, at its deepest structure, becomes not the study of the world as object, but a description of forms in which differentiation appears.

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