Can One Hear the Size of a Clock?

arXiv:2611.10252v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Weyl's law counts the vibration modes that fit into a cavity, and a quantum system with $d$ levels can oscillate at up to $d(d-1)/2$ frequencies without decay. For systems that jump at random between states, no such count was known: they oscillate only out of equilibrium, and the random timing of their jumps damps every oscillation. We find the missing count: if $Q$ is the ratio of frequency to decay rate, a system of $d$ states sustains fewer than $2(d-1)/(\pi Q)$ oscillations whose ratio exceeds $Q$. Nested cycles approach this bound, and measured oscillations reveal how large a hidden system must be.