Persistent distinction equals suppressed transition rate
Persistent distinction equals suppressed transition rate
Claim
A persistent distinction corresponds to a measurable suppression of transition rates across a defined partition of effective state space relative to noise-driven diffusion.
Definitions used
Predictions
- Increasing barrier height or constraint strength monotonically increases distinction lifetime.
- At fixed noise strength, the inverse transition rate predicts usable memory duration.
Operationalization
- System: bistable or metastable dynamical system
- State variables: coarse-grained order parameter
- Partition: basin membership
- Metric: escape rate / mean first-passage time
- Timescale: relative to intrinsic noise correlation time
Disconfirming outcomes
- Transition rates do not correlate with constraint strength.
- Distinction lifetime is not predictable from escape statistics.