Open-items register: what is honestly unsolved
The genuinely open questions are stated plainly: absolute bond energies and several magnitudes need physics beyond π-geometry, the coupling α_em is not derived, long range rests on a global U(1) hypothesis, and the absolute magnetic-vector sector is open. Closing any one is new physics, not a correction.
The genuinely open questions are stated plainly. On the chemistry side, absolute bond energies and a few magnitudes need physics outside the π-geometry. On the electromagnetism side, the coupling α_em is not derived, long range rests on a global U(1) hypothesis, and the absolute vector (magnetic) sector is open. Closing any is new physics, not a correction.
This appendix consolidates every [O] / [H] item carried in this volume, with the specific physics that would be required to close it. None is a defect to be fixed; each is open research. Closing any of them would be new physics, not a correction — and forcing a closure would reintroduce exactly the kind of overfitting (the retracted √(2.5) rule, the refuted electron amplitude) that this program has been careful to discard.
O.1 Chemistry — peripheral quantitative opens (independently re-examined)
Each was re-examined by vp_open_items_reexam.py; all
four correctly remain open because the closing variable lies
outside VP π-geometry.
| Open item | Module | Closing physics (outside VP geometry) |
|---|---|---|
| Absolute bond-dissociation energy | vp_bond_energy.py |
the Morse range β = a rₑ (anharmonicity; lone-pair / polarity). A direct test found β uncorrelated with bond order (r = +0.18), so √2 geometry alone cannot close it. |
| Defect knockdown (real vs ideal strength) | vp_strength.py |
dislocation density ρ₍disl) (processing-dependent; Taylor τ=α G b√(ρ)) — intrinsically a calibration input. |
| Naïve shell correction | vp_shell_correction.py |
the nuclear spin–orbit shell model (Mayer–Jensen); a uniform proximity bonus over-corrects because Δ B changes sign across magic numbers. |
| Electron affinity / absolute IE | vp_dblock_chemistry.py |
electron screening constants (Clementi–Raimondi); Slater rules give only the correlation (sign correct 8/18). |
O.2 Electromagnetism — foundational opens (deeper than the chemistry set)
| Open item | Grade | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Electromagnetic coupling αₑₘ (the “1/137”) | [CAL] | The strength of electromagnetism is a measured input; the framework derives the form (1/r², c, E/B, polarization, the angle law) but not the magnitude. Physics §14.5 states it is not derived. A topological / phase-winding route has been scaffolded but is computationally heavy and is on hold; there is no known low-cost shortcut. Closing it is new physics. |
| Long-range / unscreened EM (global U(1)) | [H] | Masslessness and infinite range rest on the breaking of a global (not gauged) U(1), giving a Goldstone mode — a stated departure from gauge theory. The AQD dynamics supply causality (§EM.12) but not the gauge structure; this remains a hypothesis. |
| Absolute vector (magnetic / radiative) sector | [O] | The longitudinal (Coulomb / E) sector — including the dynamic equations, Poynting flow, and causality — is closed in §EM.12. The full vector mathbf E/mathbf B curl structure (Faraday’s ∇×mathbf E and Ampère–Maxwell’s ∇×mathbf B in vector form, with the magnetic field as an independent transverse pseudovector and its absolute magnitude) is not supplied by the scalar/longitudinal treatment. This is the principal open structural item of the EM chapter. |
| γγ genesis dynamics | [O] | How charge is created from photon collisions (γγ→ e⁺e⁻) at the level of lattice dynamics is open. |
O.3 What is closed (for contrast)
The longitudinal electrodynamics is complete and reproducible: light emergence (c²=B/ρ), the static Coulomb 1/r², the |mathbf B|=(v/c)|mathbf E| ratio and ∇ ·mathbf B=0, polarization as helicity, the conduction–radiation angle, blackbody radiation, refraction, and — as of this edition — the dynamic field equations, Poynting’s theorem, energy conservation, uniqueness, and light-cone causality (§EM.12). On the chemistry side the forced body is complete: bonding geometry, coordination color, the metal d-shell fates, thermodynamics, equilibrium, kinetics, solution and electrochemistry, materials geometry, and the nuclear skeleton; and the applications are re-grounded on the verified d-band descriptor (catalysis, ammonia, water electrolysis, energy storage, new materials, CO₂ reduction), with the non-working mechanisms (magnetic desalination, amplitude-to-electricity ESS) honestly refuted and replaced by working alternatives.