{ "model": { "rank": 9830, "code": "thing-q6485344", "model_id": "vr.tr.flux", "name": "flux", "purpose": "Let an agent explain flux as a rate through a surface, distinguish its uses in physics, engineering, ecology and mathematics, relay units and measurement, and separate it from other senses of the word.", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Cross-cutting context", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "XCT", "domain": "XCT.STA", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/q6485344/", "tier": 2, "score": 46, "payload": { "layer": "wikidata", "aliases": [ "energy current", "energy flux", "ecosystem flux", "radiation stress" ], "aliasCount": 4, "merged": 4, "knownIn": 46, "facets": null, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "", "senseRank": null, "alsoRegisteredAs": "vr.tr.flux-act", "source": { "dataset": "wikidata", "item": "Q6485344", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6485344", "license": "CC0 1.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-12T22:45:35Z", "providers": [ "Claude" ], "breadth": "written by Claude from model knowledge without web access - no source was read, every claim is a lead to verify", "pass": 2, "wave": 3, "engine": "claude" }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-Q6485344", "registryId": "vr.tr.flux", "name": "flux", "version": "0.2.0-wave.3", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "XCT.STA" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q6485344/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.flux", "name": "flux", "purpose": "Let an agent explain flux as a rate through a surface, distinguish its uses in physics, engineering, ecology and mathematics, relay units and measurement, and separate it from other senses of the word.", "definition": "In the sense recorded here, the rate at which a quantity such as energy, mass, particles or momentum passes through a surface, expressed per unit area and time, as in radiative energy flux, heat flux, mass flux in ecosystems and momentum flux or radiation stress in waves; flux is a central quantity in physics, engineering, ecology and climate science, and in vector calculus the surface integral of a field, while the metallurgical and soldering senses of flux are different.", "what_it_is_for": "Quantifying transport through surfaces.", "affordances": [ "explain the concept and units", "distinguish uses across fields", "relay measurement methods", "separate other senses" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "Per area per time", "Vector or scalar forms", "Cross-disciplinary", "Surface integral in mathematics" ], "appearance": "Not a visible object; a quantity in equations and measurements.", "visual_identification": [ "Rate of transport through a surface", "Energy, mass, particle and momentum fluxes", "Soldering flux and metallurgical flux are materials, not rates" ], "physical_properties": [ { "quantity": "energy flux units", "typical_range": "W/m2", "unit": "unit", "note": "" }, { "quantity": "mass flux units", "typical_range": "kg/(m2 s)", "unit": "unit", "note": "" } ], "families_and_kinds": [ "energy and radiative flux", "heat flux", "mass and particle flux", "momentum flux and radiation stress", "ecosystem fluxes such as carbon and water flux", "flux as a surface integral in vector calculus" ], "related_models": [ { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "rate", "why": "in registry terms" }, { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "scalar", "why": "in registry terms, in some uses" }, { "relation": "is measured by", "target": "eddy covariance", "why": "in ecosystem science" }, { "relation": "is confused with", "target": "soldering flux", "why": "a different sense" } ], "identifiers": [], "standards_and_regulation": [ "SI units and ISO 80000 quantities", "Measurement standards for flux towers and radiometers" ], "failure_modes_and_hazards": [ "Confusing flux with flux density or total flow", "Sense confusion", "Unit errors" ], "in_scope": [], "out_of_scope": [], "characteristics": [] }, "sources": [], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "concept", "name": "Concept", "description": "What flux is.", "rationale": "Definition.", "layers": [ { "id": "definition", "name": "Definition", "description": "Definition and units.", "findings": [ { "id": "definition-finding", "name": "Definition", "description": "Definition.", "questions": [ { "text": "What is flux in this sense, and what units does it take?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Is the question about flux as a rate or about soldering or metallurgical flux?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "mathematics", "name": "Mathematics", "description": "Flux as an integral.", "findings": [ { "id": "mathematics-finding", "name": "Mathematics", "description": "Mathematics.", "questions": [ { "text": "How is flux defined as a surface integral, and how does the divergence theorem relate flux to sources?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Which entry fits divergence theorem?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "fields", "name": "Fields", "description": "Flux across fields.", "rationale": "Application.", "layers": [ { "id": "physics", "name": "Physics", "description": "Physics and engineering.", "findings": [ { "id": "physics-finding", "name": "Physics", "description": "Physics.", "questions": [ { "text": "How are energy, heat and momentum fluxes used in physics and engineering?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits heat flux?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "ecology", "name": "Ecology", "description": "Ecosystem fluxes.", "findings": [ { "id": "ecology-finding", "name": "Ecology", "description": "Ecology.", "questions": [ { "text": "How are carbon, water and energy fluxes measured and used in ecosystem and climate science?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits eddy covariance?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "measure", "name": "Measure", "description": "Measurement.", "rationale": "Practice.", "layers": [ { "id": "methods", "name": "Methods", "description": "Methods.", "findings": [ { "id": "methods-finding", "name": "Methods", "description": "Methods.", "questions": [ { "text": "How are fluxes measured, from radiometers to flux towers?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which references are standard?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "compute", "name": "Compute", "description": "Computation.", "findings": [ { "id": "compute-finding", "name": "Compute", "description": "Compute.", "questions": [ { "text": "How is a flux computed from a field and a surface?", "kind": "action" }, { "text": "What is the result for the case in question?", "kind": "measurement" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "context", "name": "Context", "description": "Terminology and teaching.", "rationale": "Context.", "layers": [ { "id": "terminology", "name": "Terminology", "description": "Terminology.", "findings": [ { "id": "terminology-finding", "name": "Terminology", "description": "Terminology.", "questions": [ { "text": "How do fields differ in using flux, flux density and flow, and where does confusion arise?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which sources are cited?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "teach", "name": "Teach", "description": "Teaching.", "findings": [ { "id": "teach-finding", "name": "Teach", "description": "Teaching.", "questions": [ { "text": "How is flux taught in physics and calculus?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits physics education?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Should each field-specific flux be a separate entry?", "How should measurement standards be linked?", "How should the metallurgical sense be cross-referenced?" ], "statistics": { "bundles": 4, "layers": 8, "findings": 8, "questions": 16 } }, "draft": { "generator": "vr.draft.v3", "status": "draft-generated", "researched": false, "archetype": "abstract concept", "method": "Written from the archetype playbook - what this kind of thing needs beyond identity and provenance - and from the structure that recurred across 6,333 models already researched by two engines. Applied to this entry by rule. No source was read for this thing and no claim here is researched. This entry carries no facets of its own, so they were inferred from its domain - a guess about a whole domain applied to one thing.", "facetsInferred": true, "nextPass": "A researcher replaces this draft with a sourced specification. Treat every sentence below as a proposal to argue with.", "purpose": "Give an agent a durable, checkable way to recognise a flux, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "Let an agent explain flux as a rate through a surface, distinguish its uses in physics, engineering, ecology and mathematics, relay units and measurement, and separate it from other senses of the word.", "characteristics": { "substance": "abstract", "origin": "conceptual", "agency": "inert" }, "whatYouCanDoWithIt": [ "observed and measured" ], "distinguishingFeatures": [ "Names folded into this entry, which a task may need to split apart again: energy current, energy flux, ecosystem flux, radiation stress.", "4 finer distinctions are held as aliases rather than separate entries, because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it.", "Described in 46 Wikipedia languages, which is a measure of how widely the thing is known, not of how important it is." ], "openQuestionsForResearch": [ "Which of the bundles below does a real task actually need, and which are ceremony?", "What does this thing have that the facets do not capture at all?", "Which neighbouring kind is most often confused with a flux, and on what evidence are they told apart?" ], "whatItIsMadeOf": "an abstraction with no physical instance", "physicalCharacter": [ "Does nothing on its own; everything it does, something else did to it.", "These come from the domain this entry sits in rather than from the entry itself, so treat them as a first guess about the whole domain applied to one thing." ], "whatCanBeDoneWithIt": [ "observe it, measure it, record its state" ], "howItIsRecognised": [ "Nothing to see. What is recognised is an instance of it, and which instances count is exactly what is argued about." ], "relatedModels": [ { "relation": "covers", "note": "Finer kinds folded into this entry because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it. Each is a model waiting to be split out when one does.", "targets": [ "energy current", "energy flux", "ecosystem flux", "radiation stress" ] } ], "standing": "Described in 46 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is. 4 finer distinctions are held inside this entry as names rather than as separate models.", "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "identity-and-classification", "name": "Identity, naming and classification", "description": "How an agent tells one flux from another, and a flux from things that resemble it.", "rationale": "Recognition comes before every other claim. Without stable identity nothing else in the model can be trusted to be about the same thing twice.", "layers": [ { "id": "naming-and-identifiers", "name": "Names and identifiers", "description": "The names this thing goes by and the identifiers that survive translation and time.", "findings": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases", "name": "Preferred name, aliases and local names", "description": "Which name to use, which names mean the same thing, and which merely sound similar.", "questions": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the name of a flux, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the name of a flux, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the name of a flux is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers", "name": "Stable identifiers and external keys", "description": "Identifiers that keep pointing at this kind of thing across systems and languages.", "questions": [ { "id": "stable-identifiers-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an identifier for a flux, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an identifier for a flux, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an identifier for a flux is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "classification-and-granularity", "name": "Classification and granularity", "description": "Where a flux sits among kinds, and how finely a task needs to cut it.", "findings": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents", "name": "Kind, parents and neighbouring kinds", "description": "The classes this thing belongs to and the ones it is next to.", "questions": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the kind of a flux, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the kind of a flux, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the kind of a flux is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features", "name": "Distinguishing features", "description": "What separates a flux from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a flux, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about what distinguishes a flux, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once what distinguishes a flux is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "state-and-lifecycle", "name": "State and lifecycle", "description": "The states a flux passes through and the events that move it between them.", "rationale": "Most decisions about a thing depend on what state it is in now, which is a claim with a time on it, not a property.", "layers": [ { "id": "lifecycle-stages", "name": "Lifecycle stages", "description": "From coming into existence to ceasing to be one of these.", "findings": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions", "name": "Stages and transitions", "description": "The stages worth naming and what moves a flux between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a flux, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the lifecycle of a flux, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the lifecycle of a flux is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "observations-and-status", "name": "Observations and current status", "description": "What is observed about a flux, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a flux is recorded so that it can be superseded rather than overwritten.", "questions": [ { "id": "observation-record-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an observation of a flux, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an observation of a flux, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an observation of a flux is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "definitions-in-contest", "name": "Definitions and who holds them", "description": "What flux is taken to mean, and by whom.", "rationale": "When a field disagrees about a concept, the disagreement is the content. A model that picks one definition silently destroys the information.", "layers": [ { "id": "competing-definitions", "name": "Competing definitions", "description": "The main readings and the traditions behind them.", "findings": [ { "id": "definition-map", "name": "Definitions and their holders", "description": "Each definition with the school or body that holds it.", "questions": [ { "id": "definition-map-q01", "text": "Which definitions of flux are in use, and which tradition or body holds each?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "definition-map-q02", "text": "What turns on the difference between them in practice?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "operationalisation", "name": "Operationalisation", "description": "How it is measured or applied when it has to be.", "findings": [ { "id": "operational-record", "name": "Measures and proxies", "description": "Instruments and indicators used to stand in for it.", "questions": [ { "id": "operational-record-q01", "text": "How is flux operationalised or measured in practice, and by what instrument?", "kind": "measurement" }, { "id": "operational-record-q02", "text": "What does that operationalisation leave out, and when does that matter?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "instances-and-use", "name": "Instances, use and consequence", "description": "What counts as an instance of flux and what follows from calling something that.", "rationale": "Applying a concept is an act with consequences, so a model must say what the label licenses and what it does not.", "layers": [ { "id": "instances", "name": "What counts as an instance", "description": "Clear cases, borderline cases and non-cases.", "findings": [ { "id": "instance-tests", "name": "Tests for an instance", "description": "What would settle whether something falls under it.", "questions": [ { "id": "instance-tests-q01", "text": "What would settle whether something is an instance of flux?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "id": "instance-tests-q02", "text": "Which borderline cases are argued about, and on what grounds?", "kind": "definition" } ] } ] }, { "id": "consequence", "name": "Consequence of application", "description": "Rights, duties or decisions that follow from the label.", "findings": [ { "id": "consequence-record", "name": "What the label licenses", "description": "What an agent may do once something is classified this way.", "questions": [ { "id": "consequence-record-q01", "text": "What follows practically once something is treated as flux?", "kind": "action" }, { "id": "consequence-record-q02", "text": "What must an agent not infer from the label alone?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "provenance-and-evidence", "name": "Provenance, evidence and time", "description": "Where every claim about a flux came from and when it held.", "rationale": "A claim without a source and a time cannot be superseded, only overwritten, and an agent that overwrites loses the ability to explain itself.", "layers": [ { "id": "source-and-authority", "name": "Source and authority", "description": "Who said it, on what evidence, and how strongly.", "findings": [ { "id": "claim-provenance", "name": "Claim provenance and confidence", "description": "The authority behind each claim about a flux and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a flux, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a claim about a flux, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a claim about a flux is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "time-and-versions", "name": "Time, versions and supersession", "description": "When a claim was true, when it was learnt, and what replaced it.", "findings": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession", "name": "Validity period and supersession", "description": "How an old claim about a flux is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a flux, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the validity of a claim about a flux, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the validity of a claim about a flux is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "statistics": { "bundles": 5, "layers": 10, "findings": 12, "questions": 32 } } } }