Reconstructing Temperature from Escape Dynamics in Constrained Systems

Temperature is a central concept in statistical physics, yet its operational meaning is typically tied to equilibrium ensembles or thermodynamic relations. Here we propose an alternative formulation within Energy-Efficiency Theory (EET) in which temperature is reconstructed from the escape dynamics of constrained-state energy. We define an escape tendency λ as the measurable rate of barrier-crossing events in a constrained system, without assuming prior knowledge of temperature. Empirically, escape rates in many systems exhibit an approximately exponential dependence on barrier energy. We interpret this scaling as defining temperature as a parameter reconstructed from escape statistics, rather than a primitive…