Finite Distinguishability Budgets and Maintenance Bounds for Physical Observers

Yining Wu · 2026-05-14

Structural Trident I. Defines finite distinguishability budgets for physical observers: the minimal thermodynamic cost of maintaining a distinguishability boundary under finite capacity. Introduces observer capacity bounds, maintenance inequalities, Landauer-style erasure bounds for irreversible record turnover, budget-crossing signatures, and bottleneck-switching kinks. Establishes the observer thermodynamics framing that the Trident series builds on.

@misc{wu2026fdst1,
  author = {Yining Wu},
  title = {Finite Distinguishability Budgets and Maintenance Bounds for Physical Observers},
  year = {2026},
  doi = {10.5281/zenodo.20234249},
}