Answers are grounded in this paper and cite their sources.
Can a finite system repeating on a single cycle reproduce, for a specified duration, the behaviour of another deterministic system, even when the visible behaviour appears irreversible? We formulate this as a circular-sequence problem. Each visible state has a prescribed number of underlying occurrences, and at least a specified number must begin trajectories that follow the visible rule correctly for a given duration. These trajectories may overlap, but every underlying state must belong to one cycle. We establish necessary and sufficient conditions for such a realisation and give a constructive method based on a compact integer certificate. We then show that existence can be decided in time polynomial in the binary size of the input, using at most n minimum-cost-flow computations for n visible states, without expanding the potentially enormous underlying cycle. The result provides an exact resource-feasibility criterion for finite-duration effective dynamics within a recurrent reversible host. It establishes mathematical feasibility under specified conditions, without assuming that the required structures arise naturally.
No takes yet. Share an insight, caveat, or question.
Chris Bartlett (2026) studied this question.
Synapse has enriched 8 closely related papers on similar clinical questions. Consider them for comparative context: