The Bounce as a Thermodynamic Bottleneck: A Conceptual Resolution to Tolman's Entropy Objection

Cyclic cosmology has a thermodynamics problem,  entropy should accumulate across cycles making true repetition impossible. This paper argues that’s a category error. The second law applies within each phase. At the bounce, accessible microstates reach a minimum by the dynamics themselves. No entropy is destroyed. The framework can apply to any bounce cosmology.