A Tension-Based Budget for Proper-Time Modulation: Separating Passive (Gravitational/Thermal) Effects from Active Internal Coherence

This note proposes a conservative, falsifiable budget for proper-time behavior that dis- tinguishes (i) passive contributions (gravity and unavoidable thermal/radiative dissipation) from (ii) active internal persistence (coherent internal dynamics). The goal is not to replace General Relativity (GR), but to provide a dimensionally consistent framework to compare real systems (inert matter, radiating bodies, and living systems) using measurable quan- tities: mass, size, temperature, emitted power, and internal coherence metrics (dominant frequency, coherence time, quality factor). We show what is forced by known physics (orders of magnitude), what remains model-dependent, and we extract testable predictions and laboratory-scale protocols.