Does a Bounced Cosmology Supply a Maximum Cluster Age? A Formal Test With a Negative Result

A framework earns the name testable by supplying the quantity a measurement could contradict. This study asks whether a bounced cosmology supplies a maximum age for a globular cluster — a number an observed age could exceed. It does not. The framework supplies a maximum density and, through the standard post-bounce expansion, the familiar cosmic age of 13.787 billion years as the time available since the hot phase; it supplies no additional, distinct maximum, and no channel by which a star or cluster could carry age across the bounce. The negative result is stated plainly. The study then computes what the missing supply would have to look like: a hypothetical robust cluster age of fifteen billion years would require a pre-bounce survival interval of at least 1.21 billion years, and detecting a one-billion-year excess at three standard deviations would require cluster age precision of 0.33 billion years, beyond current systematics. Until the framework specifies a survival channel with a duration, cluster ages can confirm its consistency but can never confirm the bounce itself. The computation is elementary and uses published values throughout.