Expansion as Boundary Printing: One Printer for Inflation, Dark Energy and Dark Matter, and a Primordial-Tensor Null

In the finite quantum-error-correction (QEC) substrate programme [5, 8], space is the crys-

tallised, self-correcting phase of a discrete register network. We develop the consequence that

cosmic expansion is not the stretching of a metric but Holographic Boundary Crystallization:

the printing of fresh, zero-entropy cells at the causal horizon to keep the patch under its Beken-

stein bound [1, 10]. Under this one mechanism inflation and dark energy are the same printer

at different clock rates. We report three results. (i) The scalar sector — the amplitude As, the

tilt ns, the e-fold count, and the dark-energy equation of state w0 — follows from two printer

parameters, an event unit of one Landauer bit and a saturation stop rule, and lands within 1σ

of Planck [16]. (ii) The tensor sector is sharply different. The naive de Sitter estimate r ≃23

rests on a metric-stretching premise the model explicitly denies; the printer is a scalar process

whose graviton — the substrate’s transverse (shear) phonon — is absent at the pre-rigid printing

front, giving a primordial-tensor null, r ∼2 ×10−9 (no observable B-modes). (iii) The boot

cooling schedule is fixed by the printer itself (the printing dilutes frustration), reducing both the

dark-matter abundance and the tensor suppression to a single universality exponent µ, which

we measure. The picture is falsifiable: a B-mode detection at r ∼10−3–10−1.4 would refute

it. We tier honestly throughout — the scalar form and the tensor-null mechanism are robust;

several absolute values are conditional; µand the lattice-to-physical energy bridge remain open

— and every number is reproduced by a short self-checking program.

Version 2.0 (2026-06-15). Added a dark-matter caveat: the printer fixes a dark-matter abundance but does not complete the CMB third peak — with only baryons + the sterile-neutrino relic clustering (Ω_mh²≈0.046), matter–radiation equality is z_eq≈z_rec rather than ≈3400; the R4 line-current (w→−1) and the frozen defect network (w=−p/3) are both w<0, so closing the peak needs an external AeST-class pressureless mode.

2026-06-20 canon refresh: Updated to current HBC stop-rule/whitening status, printer-cooling split, K04 bridge status, and CMB zero-mode/theta-star gates; build/render checked locally; not Zenodo-synced.

2026-06-21 canon refresh: This version incorporates the 2026-06-21 ANCHOR/DRIFT/PTMS canon refresh and rebuilt local PDF.

2026-06-25 canon refresh: Zenodo-synced on 2026-06-20: new-version published as 10.5281/zenodo.20776752 (concept 10.5281/zenodo.20693230); local build/render previously checked. 2026-06-21 canon refresh applied where needed; PDF rebuilt and checked. Zenodo-synced on 2026-06-21: new-version published as 10.5281/zenodo.20786086 (concept 10.5281/zenodo.20693230).