The Deleted Degrees of Freedom 1 The Deleted Degrees of Freedom: A Case for Potential-Primary Electrodynamics Dr. Paul Wilhelm1 Advanced Rediscovery2 2026-03-19 Abstract. The four-gradient ∂µAν has 16 independent components. Standard elec- trodynamics uses only the 6 antisymmetric components (Fµν, encoding E and B). The remaining 10 — including the scalar-longitudinal coupling and the trace that the Lorenz gauge sets to zero — are not proven absent. They are defined absent by convention. This paper traces the construction of that convention through three acts of deletion: Heaviside’s vector reduction, the Lorenz gauge, and the onto- logical demotion of potentials. […]