Empirical Consistency of a Thermodynamic Persistence Constraint

This work examines the empirical compatibility of a recently proposed thermodynamic persistence constraint, which asserts that macroscopic identities operating under irreversible dynamics remain admissible only so long as cumulative irreversible dissipation remains finite.

Using only published measurements and order-of-magnitude estimates, an operational diagnostic quantity is constructed from independently measurable observables: persistence time, irreversible dissipation rate, and system scale. This diagnostic is evaluated in two disparate empirical contexts: single bacterial cells operating across extreme metabolic regimes, and the persistence of liquid water under supercooled conditions.

Despite vast differences in scale, composition, and underlying mechanisms, both systems exhibit the same thermodynamic structure. Persistence time varies primarily through changes in irreversible dissipation rate or approach to identity loss, while the irreversible thermodynamic cost associated with loss of macroscopic identity remains finite and well defined. No violations of the proposed thermodynamic admissibility condition are observed within the examined regimes.

The analysis is intentionally conservative and does not introduce new dynamical laws, predict lifetimes, or infer architecture-dependent tolerances. Instead, it provides an empirical consistency check on whether macroscopic persistence can be treated as constrained by cumulative irreversible effects within standard thermodynamic bookkeeping across both biological and non-biological systems.