The Semantic, Temporal and Topological Structure of 275,774 UFO/UAP Testimonies (1900–2023)
Miguel Pavón · Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · 2025
Unidentified aerial phenomena (UFO/UAP) constitute a global corpus of testimonies that, despite its magnitude and longevity, has scarcely been examined using contemporary data analysis techniques. Existing research has tended to focus on individual testimonies, regional studies, or qualitative discussions, and lacks a massive quantitative evaluation capable of determining the existence, stability, and significance of underlying patterns. In this work, we analyze 275,774 testimonies collected between 1900 and 2023 through exhaustive integration of the UFOCAT and NUFORC catalogs, applying natural language processing tools (1), statistical changepoint detection (4), semantic distance measures (2), and Topological Data Analysis (3). Our results reveal: (1) the existence of eight stable narrative archetypes over more than a century, (2) two global historical transitions in 1946–1949 and 1992–2001, (3) a surprisingly simple topological structure characterized by the absence of cycles (H =0), and (4) a reduced subset of extremely ₁ anomalous cases that resist statistical or cultural explanation. This work establishes a quantitative analytical framework for the scientific study of UAP phenomena, integrating linguistic, cognitive, and cultural dimensions in a unified approach.