# Atlas of Current Physics

This note is the new front door for the project. It does not replace [0 - overview.md](0%20-%20overview.md); that file remains the full synthesis manuscript. This atlas is a shorter navigational map: the major regions of current physics, the recurring patterns that connect them, and the frontier where the map becomes incomplete.

## How to Use This Atlas

Use this note as a map rather than a full treatment. Start with the region closest to the question at hand, then move through the cross-domain patterns when you want the larger architecture. Use the frontier note when you want the open problems, tensions, and anomalies rather than the settled core.

## Core Thesis

The atlas is organized around one recurring claim: symmetry generates structure, symmetry breaking generates new structure, and boundaries or thresholds often carry the most universal physics. The cross-domain note does the heaviest conceptual work on that thesis, but the domain chapters carry it directly as well.

## Main Regions of Current Physics

- [1 - foundations and language.md](1%20-%20foundations%20and%20language.md): the shared mathematical and conceptual language
- [2 - atomic and optical physics.md](2%20-%20atomic%20and%20optical%20physics.md): atoms, spectra, selection rules, and precision structure
- [3 - molecular physics and chemical bonding.md](3%20-%20molecular%20physics%20and%20chemical%20bonding.md): molecules, bonding, rotations, vibrations, and spectroscopy
- [4 - nuclear and few-body physics.md](4%20-%20nuclear%20and%20few-body%20physics.md): isotopes, nuclear forces, thresholds, and few-body universality
- [5 - condensed matter and quantum materials.md](5%20-%20condensed%20matter%20and%20quantum%20materials.md): crystals, bands, phonons, superconductivity, topology, and materials
- [6 - particle physics and quantum fields.md](6%20-%20particle%20physics%20and%20quantum%20fields.md): relativistic fields, gauge theory, and the Standard Model
- [7 - gravity cosmology and holography.md](7%20-%20gravity%20cosmology%20and%20holography.md): black holes, cosmology, and holographic duality

## Cross-Cutting Patterns

The project's unifying threads live in [8 - cross-domain patterns.md](8%20-%20cross-domain%20patterns.md): symmetry and symmetry breaking, Goldstone structure, boundaries as special points, topology, bosonic collective dynamics, and coherence as an organizing principle.

The shortest version of the framework is:

```text
symmetry -> degeneracy
symmetry breaking -> differentiated structure
thresholds -> enhanced universality
```

That is the main reason the atlas is split the way it is. The domain notes show how the pattern appears in specific systems; [8 - cross-domain patterns.md](8%20-%20cross-domain%20patterns.md) states it openly.

## Boundary Territories

Physics shades into neighboring domains rather than ending cleanly. [11 - boundary territories.md](11%20-%20boundary%20territories.md) keeps the chemistry and biology bridge material visible while marking those areas as adjacent to the main atlas rather than inside its core.

## Open Frontier

Not all regions of the map are equally settled. [9 - frontiers and anomalies.md](9%20-%20frontiers%20and%20anomalies.md) gathers the precision anomalies, cosmological tensions, condensed-matter puzzles, and foundational questions that suggest the present map is incomplete.

The frontier material now also carries the manuscript's experimental-clue and prediction layer, so it is not only a list of puzzles. It is increasingly a guide to which measurements would most strongly sort among competing explanations.

## Navigation Map

1. Foundations: [1 - foundations and language.md](1%20-%20foundations%20and%20language.md)
2. Atoms and light: [2 - atomic and optical physics.md](2%20-%20atomic%20and%20optical%20physics.md)
3. Molecules and bonds: [3 - molecular physics and chemical bonding.md](3%20-%20molecular%20physics%20and%20chemical%20bonding.md)
4. Nuclei and few-body systems: [4 - nuclear and few-body physics.md](4%20-%20nuclear%20and%20few-body%20physics.md)
5. Solids and quantum materials: [5 - condensed matter and quantum materials.md](5%20-%20condensed%20matter%20and%20quantum%20materials.md)
6. Fields and particles: [6 - particle physics and quantum fields.md](6%20-%20particle%20physics%20and%20quantum%20fields.md)
7. Gravity and the universe: [7 - gravity cosmology and holography.md](7%20-%20gravity%20cosmology%20and%20holography.md)
8. Shared patterns across scales: [8 - cross-domain patterns.md](8%20-%20cross-domain%20patterns.md)
9. Active puzzles and anomalies: [9 - frontiers and anomalies.md](9%20-%20frontiers%20and%20anomalies.md)
10. Lookup material: [10 - references and formula sheets.md](10%20-%20references%20and%20formula%20sheets.md)
11. Boundary zones: [11 - boundary territories.md](11%20-%20boundary%20territories.md)