The EREBUS Attractor: Late-Time Relaxation in Black Hole Merger Remnants

We analyze late-time gravitational-wave residuals in binary black hole merger remnants using a template-free audit of the phase-gradient product, defined here as the Friedrich Information Density (FID). In an analysis of fifteen compact-object systems, including LIGO stellar-mass events and supermassive remnants, we identify a mass-invariant frequency lock at νstasis = 32.00 Hz. We characterize this behavior as the EREBUS state—an effective late-time relaxation regime that minimizes phase decoherence. Our results indicate a persistent deviation (> 70% NRMSE) from standard General Relativistic quasinormal mode templates. We describe this stasis as a discrete phase-locking property of the effective field update rate, providing a phenomenological model for late-time energy-information persistence without invoking singular divergences.