EXP-HYSTERESIS

design killed

Hysteresis Test — Can Standard Hysteresis Discriminate First-Order Transition?

2026-03-10 L3 level paper3 0

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In plain language

Hysteresis is a classic test for a first-order phase transition: if you increase a parameter and return it back, the system "sticks" in the new state. But our system has no memory between experiments — each run starts from a clean slate. Therefore the "path up" and "path down" would yield the same result. The test is impossible without platform restructuring. Instead of hysteresis, we propose a sensitivity test for initial conditions: different seed texts at N=6 → if results are bimodal, this supports first-order; if unimodal — the transition is smooth.

▶ Technical details

Research hypothesis

KILLED AT DESIGN STAGE.

Standard hysteresis (ascending vs descending N-path comparison) is not testable in our memoryless system. Each experiment starts from identical initial conditions regardless of what was run before. Independent experiments at descending N values would produce results identical to ascending, modulo sampling noise.

See config.yaml comments for full analysis and alternative test proposals.

Experimental setup

Type: killed