Time Reversal: Physical Requirements for Temporal Distinction A Foundational Clarification

This paper provides a physically grounded definition of time reversal by removing its treatment as an abstract symmetry or mathematical operation. It shows that temporal distinction arises only through irreversible physical processes—interaction, dissipation, and record formation. Time reversal therefore has physical meaning only in systems where no irreversible records exist; where records are formed, temporal inversion becomes physically undefined rather than violated. The paper establishes time direction as a material consequence of record persistence, not a property of equations.