From Quark to Nucleus: A Unifying Structural Principle across Levels of Description in Nature

This work contributes to the philosophical analysis of reduction and unification in the physical sciences, with a focus on structural continuity across levels of physical description. It examines, within a geometric thought experiment, how spatial relations at the quark level may be represented as shaping the organization of nucleons and nuclei. The study concentrates on the transition from quarks to nucleons and to the nucleus, providing a conceptual framework for discussing structural relations between these levels. Rather than proposing an alternative to established physical theories, the model is intended as a heuristic and conceptual approach, exploring how recurring geometric patterns may underlie different levels of physical description. In this sense, the reduction proposed here is primarily explanatory: it seeks to show how complex structural features can be understood as arising from simple geometric arrangements, thereby contributing to philosophical discussions of structural realism and explanatory reduction.