A Meta-Variational Approach to Thermodynamic Asymmetry and the MUH Measure Problem

In this paper, I develop the conjecture that a global extremisation principle operating over complete solutions of independently specified physical laws might replace additional initial or boundary conditions as a means of determining a particular universe. In particular, a functional favouring maximal global thermodynamic asymmetry might explain how the pronounced entropy gradient of the observed universe, from which the arrow of time and causation emerge, arises under time-symmetric dynamical laws. Exceptionally ordered initial conditions would then be consequences of the extremisation rather than independent explanations of the observed asymmetry. Such a principle might also allow particular solutions to be identified non-arbitrarily where other means of selecting them would depend on unresolved arbitrary choices. This possibility is examined in relation to the measure problem associated with the Mathematical Universe Hypothesis (MUH), using the notion of pickability as non-arbitrary mathematical identification. The approach might additionally constrain physical constants, potentially addressing aspects of cosmological fine-tuning and yielding empirically testable implications.