CONSTANTS ONTOLOGY – Paper A - Root Constants and the Ontology of Physical Law A Coherence-Closure Stratification of Invariance, Recursion and Measurement

Physical constants are usually treated as empirical parameters whose values must be measuredrather than derived. This paper proposes that this treatment is incomplete because it assumes that all constants belong to the same ontological class. We introduce a stratified theory of constants within the coherence-closure framework, distinguishing root constants, recursive constants, compound constants, transcendental constants, and empirical constants. Root constants are not physical measurements but invariance conditions that make emergence,dimensionality, temporality, observation, quantum coherence, and self-reference possible. Recursive constants arise when these root invariants undergo repeated modulation acrossemergence layers. Compound constants stabilize relations among already-emerged domains,such as energy, entropy, temperature, and action. Transcendental constants encode mathematical closure operations such as rotation, growth, proportion, and scaling. This classification reframes constants not as unexplained numerical givens but as signatures ofemergence, closure, and recursive projection. The result is an ontological foundation for a later derivation program in which physical constants may be understood as projected consequences of deeper invariance structure.