Dark Energy as the Thermodynamic Cost of Quantum-Information Generation: A Testable Hypothesis.

Cosmic acceleration is well established, yet the physical origin of its energy density (ρ_DE ≈ 7 × 10⁻²⁷ kg m⁻³) remains unknown.

Building on Faggin's hypothesis of a fundamental quantum field from which spacetime emerges, I demonstrate that the thermodynamic cost of continuous quantum-state actualization can supply this energy.

A conservative census of electromagnetic interactions in the intergalactic medium leads to an information-generation rate I₀ = (5 ± 1) × 10⁸⁵ bit s⁻¹. Applying Landauer's bound (ε = k_B T ln 2) yields ρ_info,0 ≈ (0.5–2.0) × ρ_DE without fine-tuning.

The framework naturally explains: (1) the observed 70/30 energy split as a dynamic equilibrium between quantum potential and actualized reality, and (2) why acceleration began at z ≈ 0.7 when cosmic complexity crossed a critical threshold.

The model predicts measurable deviations from ΛCDM detectable by DESI and Euclid, and can be verified via Landauer calorimetry on superconducting qubit arrays.

Keywords: dark energy, quantum information, Landauer's principle, consciousness, thermodynamics, cosmology.

This work is part of a broader framework titled Cosmology of Time, which proposes that spacetime emerges from the irreversible generation of quantum information.
The foundational paper is available at: https://zenodo.org/records/15779210

PS: v 3.2: corrects the energy accounting in Eq. 5 and updates Table 1.