Timescales of the Bounce: Free-Fall, Sound-Crossing, and Torsion Response at the Aldred Limit

Three timescales govern a bounce at the Aldred Limit: the free-fall time of matter at the bound density, the sound-crossing time of the bounced core, and the response time of the torsion field implied by the Cartan equation. This paper computes all three. At the full bound density the free-fall time is 6.739e-25 s, the sound-crossing time of a 1.4 solar mass bounced core at the relativistic sound speed c over root 3 is 2.363e-18 s, and the torsion response time is 2.477e-25 s. The sound-crossing time exceeds the free-fall time by a factor 3506142.16, which means the turnaround begins at the centre before the outer core can respond coherently: the bounce is a wave that propagates outward, not a simultaneous reversal of the whole core. At a millionth of the bound density the free-fall time has lengthened to 6.739e-22 s. The torsion response is effectively instantaneous on dynamical scales at every density tabulated, which justifies treating torsion as algebraically slaved to the spin density, as the Cartan equation requires. Computed from stated assumptions, not measured.