The Irrelevancy of Half-Lives: The Limits of Intrinsic Decay in an Open Universe

This theoretical paper critiques the application of standard radioactive half-life calculations to deep-time cosmology. It proposes that traditional macroscopic decay models rely on a closed-system fallacy, ignoring the inevitable consumption of matter by cosmic phenomena. By examining the interaction between Uranium-238 and black holes, the paper introduces the concept of "environmental interruption," where the physical and structural annihilation of an isotope by a singularity permanently terminates its probabilistic decay cycle. Ultimately, this framework argues for decoupling an isotope's Intrinsic Decay Rate from its Effective Cosmological Lifespan to accurately model the ultimate fate of matter in a lossy universe.