DG-72.12 From Measurement to Quorum: Detection Thresholds and Collective State Transitions in the Honey Bee Colony

This working paper develops a regulatory framework in which the honey bee colony is interpreted as a distributed sensory-regulatory system that transitions between functional states through signal accumulation rather than centralized decision-making. The concept of quorum is defined as a physical process of sensory signal aggregation that exceeds a detection threshold and initiates a collective state transition. The colony does not respond to isolated events, but to changes in signal intensity, frequency, and temporal-spatial alignment. The paper describes detection thresholds as regulatory mechanisms that filter background variability and prevent excessive reactivity. Once accumulated sensory measurements surpass a defined level of alignment, the colony shifts from a stable state into a new functional regime (e.g., ventilation intensification, queen replacement, swarm preparation, defensive activation). The framework integrates non-linear regulatory logic, distributed coordination, and energetic constraints, arguing that colony behaviour emerges from threshold-based transitions rather than individual decision processes. This document represents the dynamic component of the DG-72 series, following the structural analysis of sensory architecture (DG-72.11) and preceding the analysis of regulatory noise and detection threshold shifts (DG-72.13).