The Thermodynamic Continuum: Entropic Deformation as the Physical Cause of Observed Cosmic Expansion in Spacetime

Abstract

Despite more than two decades of development, the standard ΛCDM cosmological framework continues to face a statistically significant Hubble tension exceeding 5σ. This work presents the first mission-grade computational implementation of the Dead Universe Theory (DUT), a cosmological framework in which redshift is interpreted as the deformation rate of a thermodynamically evolving continuum rather than as evidence of FLRW metric expansion. In DUT, observable galaxy separation emerges from entropy-driven deformation of a viscoelastic spacetime continuum undergoing irreversible thermodynamic degradation. The resulting cosmological dynamics are described by the master background equation The term Ω_ξ[1-(1+z)^{−Γ_φ}] acts as a late‑time entropic screening component that encodes the thermodynamic memory of a collapsed continuum state. We introduce DUT-CMB Engine 3.0, a production-grade inference pipeline implementing the DUT background dynamics for precision cosmology. Using Planck 2018 distance priors, Pantheon+ supernovae, and JWST-like high-redshift forecasts, we perform an end-to-end Bayesian analysis with 180,000 MCMC samples and autonomous numerical stability monitoring (HCNI). The framework reproduces cosmic microwave background observables at sub-percent precision ((\ell_A) deviation < 0.01σ) while reducing the Hubble tension from 5.4σ to 3.7σ within the analyzed dataset. DUT predicts a stable thermodynamic growth attractor characterized by (\gamma \approx 0.618), distinct from the ΛCDM expectation of (\gamma \approx 0.55). The framework further yields falsifiable predictions for Euclid and other next-generation surveys, including asymmetric large-scale lensing coherence and growth signatures associated with an entropy-driven cosmological substrate. All codes and datasets are publicly released to enable independent verification.