Mind the memory: Artefactual scaling of energy dissipation rate due to inconsistent time reversal

It has been recently proposed that an observed inverse power-law dependence of the Markovian estimate for the steady-state dissipation rate on the coarse-graining scale in self-similar networks reflects a scale-dependent energy dissipation. By explicit examples, it is demonstrated here that there are in general no relations between such an apparent power-law dependence and the actual dissipation on different length scales. We construct fractal networks with a single dissipative scale and networks with a true inverse energy-dissipation cascade, and show that they display the same scaling behavior. Moreover, it is shown that a self-similar network structure does not imply an inverse power-law scaling but may be mistaken for one in practice. When no dissipative cycles become hidden by the coarse graining, any scale dependence of the dissipation estimate vanishes if the memory is correctly accounted for in the time-reversal operation. A scale dependence of higher-order dissipation estimators signifies hidden dissipative cycles. Our results underscore the importance of accounting for memory effects in analyzing coarse observations.