Revisiting the Neutron Lifetime Puzzle: A Unified Systematics–Geometry Framework with a Falsifiable Residual Operator

The persistent ≈8-second discrepancy between beam and bottle measurements of the neutron lifetime (τₙ) remains one of the most significant unresolved problems in precision nuclear and particle physics. Despite decades of experimental advances and sub-percent uncertainties, no single missing systematic effect has been identified that can account for the observed difference. In this work, we propose a unified framework in which systematic uncertainties and geometric confinement are treated as coupled components of a non-linear measurement system rather than as independent, additive corrections. We introduce a residual time-modulation operator that emerges from the interaction between information loss, experimental geometry, and environmental conditions. Within this framework, the beam and bottle methods are shown to probe different effective decay observables rather than a single universal lifetime parameter. We formalize this approach through the Information–Coupling–Environment (ICE) principle, which constrains high-precision measurements involving confined particles. The framework yields four falsifiable experimental predictions, including geometry dependence, storage-time scaling, temperature-gradient sensitivity, and trap-complexity correlations. Importantly, the proposed explanation is conservative: it does not invoke new particle physics or exotic decay channels, but instead identifies a structurally unavoidable bias arising from correlated systematics in geometrically confined systems. The ICE framework provides a coherent resolution strategy for the neutron lifetime puzzle and suggests broader implications for precision measurements in other confined-particle experiments.