Is this not a valid question because it's been theorized before?
To answer your question (and I am only just guessing here) is yes, instances have a maximum distance I believe. If you reverse away from all others in the instance I believe you will lose contact with them and I also believe it will not reestablish contact with the ones you lost once the connection is lost.
I do not recall the devs or the DDA mentioning how many meters this might be but I believe I've gone too far away before and then never found any other ships again. I suppose this is a double-edged sword. You may be able to make an escape without dying if badly damaged (something of greater value when the game goes live?) but you also can't seek revenge for the person you reversed away from without leaving the instance, buying a new ship and hoping you get into the same instance again with them.
+1 to my post count?
