Two Absolute Zeros: An Essay in the Philosophy of Physics

I added two Essay version v6 and v7. v6 has apendix 

I have revised the essay based on the feedback received in this thread. The main changes are:

• Added an abstract that frames the essay explicitly as a philosophical framework and heuristic tool, not a physical classification
• Corrected the description of gravitational and electromagnetic waves: gravitational waves are perturbations of the spacetime metric itself, while electromagnetic waves propagate on that metric background
• Removed all speculative claims about the graviton
• Added a new section (Section 4) proposing a consistent criterion for what makes a zero a zero: a state in which the symmetry of physical interaction reaches an extremum
• Added explicit acknowledgment that the conceptual anchors ("silence of matter", "boundary of geometry") are not precise physical descriptions but starting points for inquiry
• Added a note that gravitational waves do not set particles into vibration the way mechanical waves do — they alter the metric itself, changing proper distances between test masses
• Added a full bibliography (Carroll, Misner/Thorne/Wheeler, Abbott et al., Saulson, Rovelli, Norton, Fermi, Kittel/Kroemer)

This essay examines the concept of physical "absolute zero" across three domains: thermodynamics, electromagnetism, and gravity.

Absolute zero temperature (0 K) is the energetic terminus where all thermal motion ceases – an asymptote that can be approached but never reached. The speed of light (c) is a different kind of boundary: a constitutive constraint for massless waves, implying zero rest mass, zero spacetime interval, and zero proper time. Unlike 0 K, c is not an asymptotic limit but a state always attained by massless objects.

Does gravity possess its own separate zero? Candidates include the event horizon, the Planck length, and flat space. The essay argues that in general relativity, gravity requires no third zero because it is geometry itself – the stage, not an actor.

However, under the Multipolar Time Hypothesis (TSV), the question reopens. In TSV, time is a dynamical stream of possibility impulses, and gravity becomes a relation between geometry and that stream. The event horizon then appears as a zero of absorptive symmetry – not a zero of energy or geometry, but a zero of isotropy.

The essay concludes with an open question: whether the asymmetry between the two known zeros (0 K and c) is complete or merely provisional, depending on what gravity ultimately turns out to be.