Reactive Substrate Theory as an Interpretive Framework for Time and Thermodynamics

RST as an Interpretive Constraint Framework

Reactive Substrate Theory (RST) does not function as a predictive physical theory alongside general relativity or quantum mechanics. Instead, it operates along an orthogonal methodological axis by constraining the physical admissibility of interpretations applied to existing formalisms. Where standard theories map initial conditions to observable outcomes through dynamical evolution, RST restricts the class of interpretations that may be treated as physically meaningful once finite, nonlinear, and dissipative response is enforced.

This distinction is essential. RST does not introduce new fields, modify equations, or generate alternative predictions. It preserves the mathematical content of established theories while excluding interpretive extensions that implicitly rely on unbounded response, global reversibility, or environment-independent dynamics. In this sense, RST functions as a filtering framework rather than a generative one.

Interpretive Consequences

Once finite response and irreversible dissipation are treated as non-negotiable physical constraints, a number of long-standing problems in theoretical physics are reclassified. These issues are not solved by additional mechanisms but are rendered ill-posed by the exclusion of assumptions that exceed physical admissibility.

  • Singularities are interpreted as regime failure signals rather than realizable physical states.
  • White holes are excluded due to their reliance on exact time reversibility and non-dissipative dynamics.
  • Closed timelike curves are inadmissible once time is treated as an operational rate rather than a reversible coordinate.
  • Infinite vacuum energy arises from extending reversible mode-counting beyond finite response capacity.
  • Extra dimensions function as mathematical regularizations rather than necessary physical structures.
  • Observer-independent collapse or infinite branching presuppose unlimited coherence bandwidth.

In each case, the difficulty originates not in empirical failure but in interpretive overreach. RST enforces a discipline in which only those extensions that respect bounded response and irreversible coupling are retained as physically meaningful.

Methodological Role

RST should therefore be understood as a coherence-enforcing interpretive framework rather than as a competing theory. Its contribution lies in restoring alignment between mathematical formalism and physical constraint, thereby delimiting the boundaries within which established theories can be applied without internal contradiction.

Black Holes, Hawking Radiation, and Information in an RST Framework

The interpretive constraints imposed by Reactive Substrate Theory have direct consequences for how black hole phenomena are understood, particularly with respect to Hawking radiation, information loss, and proposed bounce or continuation scenarios. These consequences arise without modification of general relativity or quantum field theory, but through restriction of their admissible physical interpretations.

Hawking Radiation as Boundary-Limited Response

In standard semiclassical treatments, Hawking radiation emerges from quantum field behavior near a horizon defined by classical geometry. RST does not dispute the mathematical derivation of this radiation or its observational relevance. However, it rejects interpretations that treat the process as evidence of exact time reversibility or information-preserving evaporation in a fundamental sense.

Within RST, Hawking radiation is interpreted as a boundary-limited manifestation of finite substrate response under extreme stress conditions. The horizon marks a regime in which effective field descriptions remain valid while the underlying substrate approaches saturation. Radiation reflects the irreversible redistribution of coherence and energy into accessible substrate modes, not a reversible bookkeeping channel through which a collapsed interior state can be reconstructed.

Information Loss Reframed

The traditional black hole information problem arises from the demand that global quantum evolution remain unitary across regimes where physical response capacity becomes exhausted. RST reclassifies this demand as an interpretive overextension.

Once finite coherence bandwidth and irreversible coupling are treated as physical constraints, information loss is neither paradoxical nor optional. Information is not destroyed in a literal sense, but dispersed irreversibly into substrate degrees of freedom that are no longer accessible to effective descriptions. The appearance of loss reflects the breakdown of applicability of microscopic unitarity across saturated response regimes.

Accordingly, RST dissolves the information paradox by rejecting the premise that all physically realized processes must admit a globally unitary reconstruction at arbitrary scales.

Contrast with Bounce and Continuation Scenarios

Loop quantum gravity and related approaches often seek to resolve singularities by replacing collapse with a bounce, continuation, or transition to a new expanding region. These models maintain predictive structure by extending dynamics beyond classical singularities using additional degrees of freedom.

RST adopts a fundamentally different stance. It does not require a bounce, continuation, or hidden interior evolution because it does not interpret singular behavior as indicating a physical transition that must be dynamically resolved. Instead, singularities mark the failure of effective descriptions once substrate response saturates. No further physical process is implied beyond this boundary.

From the RST perspective, bounce scenarios preserve mathematical continuity at the cost of physical admissibility by implicitly assuming reversible dynamics and unlimited response capacity. RST rejects such assumptions while retaining the predictive success of general relativity in all nonsaturated regimes.

Summary

RST reframes black hole physics by enforcing finite, dissipative response as a physical constraint. Hawking radiation is retained as an effective phenomenon, information loss is recognized as a natural consequence of irreversible substrate coupling, and speculative continuation models are rendered unnecessary. In each case, interpretive coherence is restored by restricting physical claims to regimes supported by bounded response, rather than extending formalisms beyond their domain of validity.

Local Time, Global Coordination, and Temperature in Reactive Substrate Theory

Reactive Substrate Theory distinguishes sharply between physical time as operationally experienced and time as a descriptive parameter used for global coordination. This distinction is not a duality of physical times, but a separation between what is measured by physical processes and what is employed for comparative bookkeeping across regions.

Local Time as an Operational Rate

In RST, physically meaningful time is local and operational. It is defined by the rate at which physical systems undergo substrate-coupled transitions, including oscillatory processes, decay, chemical kinetics, and biological rhythms. This experienced time is finite, environment-dependent, and inseparable from the physical state of the substrate.

Accordingly, variations in gravitational potential, acceleration, or substrate stress do not alter a universal temporal flow, but constrain the local rate at which processes occur. This position is fully consistent with relativistic time dilation while reinterpreting its physical origin as a rate effect rather than a geometric abstraction.

Global Time as Descriptive Coordination

By contrast, the time parameter employed in relativistic spacetime descriptions functions as a nonlocal coordination device. It enables the ordering and correlation of events across spatially separated regions but does not correspond to a physically flowing background. RST therefore does not posit multiple physical times, but distinguishes one physical time from one descriptive parameter.

Temperature as a Rate Measure

Temperature is not a function of time in RST, nor is it reducible to a temporal variable. Instead, temperature measures the rate at which a system explores its accessible microstates per unit local proper time. It is therefore an intensive quantity that depends on both energy distribution and the local rate at which transitions can be sampled.

The dependency structure is thus:

substrate state → local clock rate → transition rate → temperature

This ordering is essential. Temperature co-varies with clock rate because both depend on substrate state, but neither is causally reducible to the other.

Interpretation, Irreversibility, and Time in Reactive Substrate Theory

When substrate state varies spatially, local clock rates vary correspondingly. Thermal equilibrium under such conditions does not require uniform temperature in a global coordinate sense, but requires consistency of state-sampling rates per unit local proper time. This reproduces the Tolman–Ehrenfest equilibrium relation without introducing new thermodynamic postulates or modifying general relativity.

Excluded Interpretations

This framework excludes a number of common but physically inadmissible interpretations:

  • Time is not a propagating field or signal.
  • Temperature does not generate time or vice versa.
  • No negative experienced time or negative absolute temperature is admitted.
  • No nonlocal physical time exists beyond operational measurement.

All admissible descriptions must respect finite response, finite coherence capacity, and irreversible substrate coupling.

Summary

Reactive Substrate Theory unifies temporal and thermodynamic interpretation by treating both as expressions of finite, environment-dependent transition rates governed by substrate state. By maintaining a strict distinction between physical time and descriptive coordination, RST preserves compatibility with existing formalisms while restoring conceptual coherence across relativistic and thermodynamic regimes.

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