Orbital Decay, Radiation Reaction, and Hysteretic Latency in Binary Pulsar Systems

We develop the binary-pulsar radiation sector of the finite-capacity latency–erasure program and derive the first compact-binary timing interface of the theory. Starting from the dynamical latency field and its retarded response structure, we construct the radiative weak-field branch relevant to relativistic compact binaries. The finite-capacity framework predicts that orbital energy loss is not exhausted by the standard quadrupolar tensor channel. In addition to the usual Peters–Mathews decay law, binary motion sources a retarded scalar latency sector, a capacity-limited radiation-reaction correction, and a hysteretic memory burden that feeds back into the orbital evolution. We derive the effective retarded latency field generated by an eccentric compact binary, compute the associated energy flux, and obtain a secular correction to the orbital period derivative . We then show that history-dependent latency produces an additional dissipative orbital-drag contribution governed by the same memory architecture that appears in the nonequilibrium laboratory branch. The resulting binary-timing framework yields a unified decay law containing tensor radiation, scalar-latency radiation, and hysteretic memory terms. This establishes the first dynamical strong-precision test sector of the finite-capacity program and places the theory in direct confrontation with relativistic binary pulsar timing.