Thermodynamic Emergence of Quantum Theory

Here we derive quantum mechanics and Standard Model features from the network axioms, building on our companion gravity article. The axioms encode locality, finite information capacity, hysteretic memory updates, Landauer erasure, and maximum-entropy state selection. From these, the tripartite lattice emerges as the unique thermodynamic ground state, giving rise to color degrees of freedom and chiral fermions. A finite-dimensional index theorem and vortex stability yield three fermion generations. The gauge group SU(3)×U(1) emerges; SU(2) and Lorentz symmetry remain heuristic. The Born rule follows from the equilibrium identification of the selection temperature with the substrate temperature, conditional on a large-deviation form. The CKM hierarchy is obtained from vortex overlap integrals, with one-loop corrections derived from the entropic path integral. The Dirac and Klein–Gordon actions are derived conditionally on the modified leapfrog rule and the continuum limit. A unified scalar action gives the Einstein equations and the Schrödinger equation. All continuum results depend on the open smooth manifold problem, which remains the central mathematical gap.