Cosmology as Representation: Informational Invariance and the Limits of Scientific Realism
Stefano Profumo
physics.hist-ph, astro-ph.CO, hep-ph, hep-th
Submitted: 2026-06-19
Comments: 42 pages, submitted
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
The gist: Modern cosmology is often taken to provide an increasingly accurate description of the universe's underlying ontology through progressively refined mathematical models.
Terminology
Abstract
Modern cosmology is often taken to provide an increasingly accurate description of the universe's underlying ontology through progressively refined mathematical models. I challenge this interpretation by arguing that the empirical success of cosmology underdetermines not only ontology but also the mathematical and conceptual frameworks used to represent observational data. I propose instead that the objective content of cosmology is best identified with cross-representational informational invariants-features of observational structure that persist across empirically adequate descriptions. These invariants can be characterized in information-theoretic terms, including correlation structure, statistical distinguishability, and limits on accessible information, and formalized using tools such as the Fisher-Rao metric on model space. On this view, cosmological models are best understood as efficient encodings of observational structure rather than uniquely privileged descriptions of fundamental reality. Scientific progress, accordingly, consists not in convergence toward a fixed ontology, but in the progressive refinement of the informational structure accessible to observation.
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