OneLoop, OneBit, OneTax: A Geometric Criterion for Subjectivity

Subjectivity has no operational criterion in physics. This paper supplies one. An observer leaves an irreversible trace in what it measures—a holonomy. The holonomy’s capacity quantifies a private world; its causal footprint is a shift in the measured steady state. Subjectivity is the conjunction of these three computable signatures—irreversibility, capacity, causal efficacy—united in one loop expansion, Icx = T − L + U. They vanish together exactly on the flat, absorbable, measure-zero limit where the observer is epiphenomenal. The minimal realization is the rank-one network: one loop, one bit, one locked direction, one nonzero tax. Every closed form is machine-verified to 10^−15.