{"schema_version":1,"experiment_id":"eoa_inverse_innovation_exp12_substrate_denial72_20260805","cell_id":"versioning_and_quality_discrimination__computer_science","arm":"CONSTRAINED_HIGH","candidate_id":"versioning_and_quality_discrimination__computer_science__CONSTRAINED_HIGH","decision":"PROPOSAL","abstention_reason":null,"proposal":{"schema_version":1,"experiment_id":"eoa_inverse_innovation_exp12_substrate_denial72_20260805","cell_id":"versioning_and_quality_discrimination__computer_science","arm":"CONSTRAINED_HIGH","candidate_id":"versioning_and_quality_discrimination__computer_science__CONSTRAINED_HIGH","proposal_index":1,"version":0,"title":"Thermal Self-Selection Heat Spreader with Staged Phase-Change Tiers","problem":"Accelerator packages can encounter heterogeneous transient heat pulses: a heat spreader sized for ordinary pulses may exhaust its thermal buffer during severe pulses, while a uniformly oversized buffer adds mass, volume, and thermal resistance for every operating condition. The severity of the next pulse is not known to the passive package in advance.","actors":["accelerator package and junction","copper base heat spreader","low-, medium-, and high-transition-temperature phase-change reservoirs","passive thermal barriers between reservoirs","downstream air or liquid heat sink","hardware thermal laboratory"],"observable_state":"For prescribed heat-flux pulses, thermocouples and direct inspection record junction-temperature trajectories, temperature plateaus, reservoir melt fractions, activation order, cooldown time, and whether each reservoir resolidifies before the next pulse.","consequence":"If a pulse exceeds the uniform spreader's available thermal capacitance, junction temperature can approach its specified limit and trigger hardware protection or throttling; indiscriminate added material can instead impede steady heat rejection.","affected_objective":"Maintain junction temperature below a predefined laboratory safety ceiling across a bounded range of transient heat-pulse severities while limiting passive buffer mass and preserving steady-state heat flow.","intervention":"Fabricate a coupon-scale heat spreader containing a continuously conducting copper base and three sealed phase-change reservoirs arranged as parallel passive heat-absorption paths. Their transition temperatures and intervening thermal resistances form an ordered ladder: the first reservoir absorbs mild pulses, additional reservoirs become thermally effective only at progressively higher temperatures, and the copper path always supplies minimum heat rejection. Temperature itself causes the device to select the amount and grade of latent-heat capacity used; no controller, workload classifier, price, permission, or reporting action is required.","structural_mapping":[{"archetype_element":"Hidden heterogeneous buyer type","domain_realization":"The unknown severity and duration of an arriving accelerator heat pulse."},{"archetype_element":"Differentiated version dimension","domain_realization":"Distinct phase-transition thresholds, latent-heat capacities, and thermal path resistances."},{"archetype_element":"Good–better–best menu","domain_realization":"An always-available copper path followed by low-, medium-, and high-temperature latent-heat tiers."},{"archetype_element":"Price-tier mapping","domain_realization":"The progressively greater thermal-energy and temperature threshold required to activate each additional material tier."},{"archetype_element":"Self-selection","domain_realization":"A pulse physically activates only the reservoirs whose transition thresholds it reaches."},{"archetype_element":"Minimum viable base quality","domain_realization":"The copper conduction path remains functional even when no phase-change reservoir activates or after latent capacity is exhausted."},{"archetype_element":"Arbitrage guardrail","domain_realization":"Calibrated thermal barriers and separated sealed reservoirs prevent all tiers from collapsing into one effective transition band."},{"archetype_element":"Upgrade and downgrade path","domain_realization":"Rising temperature activates successive reservoirs; cooldown and resolidification return the stack to its base state."},{"archetype_element":"Fairness and access constraint","domain_realization":"No workload identity or software-assigned service class determines access; identical thermal states encounter identical material responses."}],"mechanism_mapping":[{"mechanism_slug":"good_better_best_tier_menu","role":"Creates an ordered physical ladder of latent-heat capacity rather than one undifferentiated thermal buffer.","counterfactual_removal":"Replacing the ladder with one material eliminates staged activation and reduces the intervention to homogeneous buffering."},{"mechanism_slug":"self_selection_menu","role":"Lets the heat pulse select tiers through temperature-dependent phase transitions without advance classification.","counterfactual_removal":"If reservoir activation does not depend on local thermal state, pulse severity no longer selects the capacity brought into operation."},{"mechanism_slug":"quality_ladder_boundary","role":"Transition-temperature separation and thermal resistance keep activation bands distinguishable.","counterfactual_removal":"Overlapping transition bands make the reservoirs behave like a single broad, poorly discriminated buffer."},{"mechanism_slug":"minimum_viable_base_quality","role":"Maintains an unconditional conductive path to the main sink.","counterfactual_removal":"The phase-change assembly could become an insulating obstruction outside its intended transient regime."},{"mechanism_slug":"arbitrage_guardrail","role":"Physical separation limits premature cross-tier heat leakage that would consume high-threshold capacity during mild pulses.","counterfactual_removal":"All reservoirs may warm and melt together, defeating reserved capacity for severe pulses."}],"causal_chain":["An accelerator pulse injects heat into the copper base.","The base conducts heat continuously toward the downstream sink and the lowest-threshold reservoir.","If local temperature reaches the first transition band, that reservoir melts and absorbs latent heat, slowing the junction-temperature rise.","A stronger or longer pulse raises the spreader into the next transition band, making the second reservoir absorb heat while the first remains engaged.","Only the most severe tested pulses reach the third transition band and access its reserved latent capacity.","Thermal barriers limit premature warming of later tiers, preserving their capacity until their thresholds are reached.","After the pulse, stored heat flows to the downstream sink and the reservoirs resolidify in preparation for another pulse."],"baseline":"An equal-footprint copper spreader containing either no phase-change material or the same total phase-change volume as one homogeneous reservoir, tested under identical mounting pressure, sink conditions, initial temperature, and heat-pulse profiles.","nearest_rivals":["A larger conventional copper or graphite heat spreader, which adds sensible heat capacity and conduction without transition-selective tiers.","A single homogeneous phase-change reservoir of equal total volume, which provides latent buffering but no ordered self-selection among reserved capacities.","A heat pipe or vapor chamber, which passively transports heat rather than storing it in transition-threshold tiers.","Actively controlled liquid cooling or dynamic voltage and frequency scaling, which may manage peaks but depends on pumps, computation, or software control.","Separate package designs selected in advance for different accelerator classes, which requires explicit classification rather than state-driven physical self-selection."],"remaining_contrastive_claim":"Against an equal-volume homogeneous phase-change buffer, the staged stack is specifically expected to reserve some latent capacity for higher-severity pulses while retaining a conductive base path; the bounded experiment does not assert superiority outside the tested pulse envelope or over active cooling generally.","authority_safety":{"decision_authority":"The hardware thermal-laboratory lead may authorize fabrication and operation of a nonproduction coupon fixture within the laboratory's existing temperature, pressure, material-handling, and electrical limits.","authorized_first_step":"Build and test one instrumented low-power coupon using sealed, laboratory-approved phase-change materials and a current-limited heater that cannot energize production computing hardware.","excluded_actions":["Installation on production servers or live accelerator packages","Operation above component, seal, heater, or laboratory temperature limits","Use of flammable, toxic, corrosive, or unapproved phase-change materials","Modification or disabling of firmware thermal protection","Claims about field reliability, commercial viability, or effect size from the coupon test"],"halt_rollback":"Cut heater power immediately upon leakage, swelling, seal deformation, sensor disagreement beyond the preset tolerance, or approach to the safety ceiling. Allow passive cooldown, place the coupon in secondary containment, and revert to the unmodified baseline fixture."},"negative_tests":{"strongest_counterevidence":"Across matched pulse profiles, an equal-volume homogeneous reservoir produces equal or lower peak junction temperature, equal or faster cooldown, and no earlier capacity exhaustion, while the staged coupon shows no separated activation plateaus.","problem_falsifier":"The target package's measured pulse distribution is effectively uniform, or the existing spreader maintains adequate margin for every bounded pulse without undesirable mass or thermal resistance, leaving no heterogeneous transient condition to discriminate.","intervention_falsifier":"Calorimetry and temperature traces show that the reservoirs activate simultaneously, later tiers warm substantially during mild pulses, the copper base path is impaired, or the staged coupon fails to preserve high-threshold latent capacity for severe pulses.","risks":["Added interfaces may increase steady-state thermal resistance.","Phase-change expansion or repeated cycling may rupture seals or create voids.","Material leakage could contaminate the fixture.","Stored heat may produce a delayed temperature rebound during cooldown.","Thermal hysteresis may prevent complete reset between pulses.","Extra mass and package volume may outweigh any transient benefit.","Threshold tolerances may drift with aging and manufacturing variation."]},"next_evidence_step":"On a guarded bench, compare one three-reservoir coupon with an equal-footprint copper-only coupon and an equal-volume homogeneous-reservoir coupon. Apply a preregistered matrix of mild, medium, and severe current-limited heat pulses from the same initial temperature; record junction proxy temperature, reservoir temperatures, melt order, peak temperature, cooldown, and resolidification. Proceed beyond the coupon only if activation order is separated, later-tier capacity remains substantially unmelted during mild pulses, and the base conduction path does not worsen the predefined steady-state limit.","prior_art_status":"UNSEARCHED","diversity_from_prior_proposals":"Not assessed against other proposals because runtime isolation forbids inspecting them; this candidate was derived solely from the supplied archetype and domain card.","revision_record":{"parent_version":null,"progress_targets_addressed":["Preserve self-selection and tier-boundary causal structure in a computer-science hardware problem.","Make the operative intervention physical rather than computational or procedural.","Specify a counterfactual test against homogeneous buffering and active-control rivals.","Bound authority to a reversible coupon experiment."],"conceptual_changes":["Translated willingness-to-pay heterogeneity into unknown heat-pulse severity.","Translated priced quality tiers into ordered material transition thresholds and reserved latent-heat capacity."],"operational_changes":["Specified a copper base path, three sealed phase-change reservoirs, passive thermal barriers, and current-limited coupon testing."],"evidence_changes":["Defined observable activation order, melt fraction, peak temperature, cooldown, and matched physical baselines."],"claim_changes":["Limited the contrastive claim to reservation of latent capacity within the preregistered pulse envelope.","Made no novelty, prevalence, demand, commercial, or effect-size claim."]},"substrate_contract":{"primary_allowed_process":"PHYSICAL_MATERIAL","counterfactual_independence":"The essential effect is temperature-dependent melting, latent-heat absorption, conduction through copper, and passive resolidification. Removing software, algorithmic inference, dashboards, reporting, pricing, incentives, authorization logic, and procedural enforcement does not stop a heat pulse from activating successive material reservoirs or the base from conducting heat. Instruments are used only to test the effect, not to produce it.","forbidden_channel_audit":"No algorithm classifies workloads, no sensor output controls a thermal actuator, no database or dashboard routes capacity, and no human must assign a tier during operation. Prices and buyer identities are absent from the operative device. Laboratory authorization and halt rules constrain experimentation but are not links in the heat-buffering causal chain."}}}