A Note on Latch-Metastability States in Low-Entropy Environments: A Structural Prediction and Its Application to the Hebe Observation (JWST, z = 10.6)

This note records a structural principle (SP-1) of the Phase-OS Spectral Theory framework that was articulated in internal research notes dated 2026-03-18, with timestamped evidence for its existence and independent development prior to the public arXiv postings of Maiolino et al. (2603. 20362), Rusta et al. (2603. 20363), and Übler et al. (2603. 20360) reporting JWST/NIRSpec-IFU observations related to the pristine HeII-emitting source Hebe near GN-z11 at z=10. 6. The structural principle concerns metastable pre-closure states in low-entropy environments with sustained gradient fluctuations of the information potential. Such states are predicted to exhibit enhanced ionizing output, near-pristine composition, and short operational lifetime — qualitative signatures broadly consistent with the reported Hebe observables. The note is deposited as a priority record of structural coincidence, not as a quantitative derivation of the Hebe observations. A full quantitative treatment is deferred to forthcoming POST-5/POST-7 papers, following the acceptance of the primary submission (POST-0, under review at Physical Review E). This deposit adopts a controlled-disclosure standard: the public text records only what is needed to document the timestamped priority of SP-1 and its relevance to the Hebe comparison, while the broader source archive remains undisclosed in accordance with the pacing policy of the Phase-OS publication series. Key constants: τ* = 0. 145 (principal eigenvalue), κ = 0. 8509 (spectral partition ratio), Δ = 0. 004 (irreversibility margin), coolRatecrit = τ* (1-κ) ≈ 0. 0216 (latch-closure threshold).