ON THE ASSUMPTION THAT DESCRIPTIVE STRUCTURE IMPLIES PHYSICAL REALITY

This paper rigorously tests the assumption that descriptive structures used in physics—such as labels, symmetries, and formal representations—constitute physical reality. Using a strict mechanism-only, logical-necessity framework, it defines physical reality exclusively in terms of enforcing mechanisms: force, energy exchange, momentum exchange, and reciprocal back-reaction. By applying enforcement tests, removal criteria, and structural invariance analysis, the paper demonstrates that removing descriptive structure while retaining all physically enforcing mechanisms leaves physical evolution unchanged. It therefore establishes, by necessity, that descriptive structure does not itself constitute physical reality, but is a non-enforcing representation of underlying mechanisms.