Tidal Deformation Bounds and Perturbation Transfer in Bounded Curvature Spacetimes

Abstract

We derive two model-independent results for spacetimes with globally bounded tidal fields. These are operational resolution scales of the local-inertial approximation and tidal dynamics; no spacetime discreteness is implied. Given an invariant bound $\lambda_{\max}\le\lambda_{\rm bound}$ on the electric Riemann eigenvalues $E_{ij}\equiv R_{\hat{0}i\hat{0}j}$ along freely falling worldlines, we prove (i)~a rigorous upper bound on accumulated geodesic deviation through any bounded curvature interior, controlled by $\tau_*\equiv\lambda_{\max}^{-1/2}$, and (ii)~the existence of a critical wavenumber $k_*\sim\tau_*^{-1}$ separating adiabatic from non-adiabatic perturbation transfer through high-curvature epochs, with Bogoliubov coefficients exponentially suppressed for $k\,\tau_*\gg 1$. Both results depend only on the tidal bound (and, for mode transfer, on a mild timescale assumption for the curvature-driven effective potential) and are otherwise insensitive to metric details. For preparation, we collect the standard operational consequences of bounded curvature, including the accuracy-dependent local-inertial domain $L_{\rm LI}(\varepsilon)\sim\sqrt{\varepsilon}\, \lambda_{\max}^{-1/2}$ and, for conformally flat cores in four dimensions, the benchmark ratio $\tau_*/L_*=24^{1/4}$ with $L_*\equiv K_{\max}^{-1/4}$. We quantify the robustness of this coefficient under departures from maximal symmetry via the Weyl-to-Kretschmann ratio $\epsilon_C$. The general framework is validated numerically in the extremal Hayward geometry.