Small Red Dots and the DUT Framework: Simulating Hidden Black Hole Nuclei in a Collapsing Cosmological Geometry

The Dead Universe Theory (DUT) predicted the existence of compact, red, and massive galaxies at extreme redshifts (z ≈ 9–20) through its Quantum Simulator as early as March 2025. These objects, originally labeled in observational astronomy as Small Red Dots (SRDs), are hereafter referred to in the DUT framework as Little Red Dots (LRDs) — a conceptual adaptation that emphasizes their role as low-entropy fossil structures formed shortly after the cosmic inflection point. Subsequent JWST observations confirmed the existence of equivalent sources, including CAPERS-LRD-z9, JADES-GS-z13-0, and CEERS-93316. While such findings strongly challenge the ΛCDM timeline for early galaxy formation, they are a direct and expected outcome of the DUT cosmology. This convergence highlights DUT’s predictive power and its role as a falsifiable alternative to standard models.

Based on the article Small Red Dots and the DUT Framework, the DUT Quantum Simulator anticipated, prior to JWST observations, the following key properties of Small Red Dots (SRDs):

• High masses: 106–108M⊙10^{6}–10^{8} M_{\odot}106–108M⊙, already within the first 200–300 Myr.

• Quiescent environment: extremely low star-formation rates, in contrast to the ΛCDM scenario.

• Dust obscuration: compact nuclei detectable only in the infrared.

• Infrared spectrum: dominant emission at 2.5–5 μm, with no strong high-ionization lines.

• Stable and non-singular structure: persistent nuclei regulated by entropic potentials.

These characteristics were simulated and published with DOI months before independent JWST confirmations in objects such as CAPERS-LRD-z9 (z = 9.28; Taylor et al.), JADES-GS-z13-0 (z ≈ 13.2), and CEERS-93316 (z ≈ 16.7).

Since March 15, 2025, executions of the DUT Quantum Simulator had already anticipated the existence of compact red sources at z ≈ 9, including morphological and spectral properties that were later reported for CAPERS-LRD-z9 by Taylor et al. In cosmological interpretation, z ≈ 9 and z = 9.288 are equivalent within the margins of uncertainty; however, the latter value was presented only in a subsequent study after the observations, without prior documentation of the applied methodology or reproducible data demonstrating in a transparent way how the result was obtained.

The Dead Universe Theory (DUT) represents an innovative computational cosmological model, supported by open-source simulation codes that are continuously updated. DUT simulators — available on public platforms such as the DUT Quantum Simulator (https://github.com/ExtractoDAO/DUT-Quantum-Simulator) and the DUT General Relativity Simulator (https://github.com/ExtractoDAO/DuT-General-Relativity) — allow the scientific community to reproduce, validate, and expand predictions already registered and timestamped.

Currently, dozens of simulations and research studies are accessible online, including structured forecasts for missions such as Roman, Euclid, and JWST, with a horizon extending to 2035. This methodological openness strengthens Decentralized Science (DeSci) and ensures traceability of results in contrast with closed approaches.

In its predictions for such high-redshift sources, DUT had already highlighted the compact morphology, the dust-obscuration profile, and the broad-line hydrogen emission, all of which were formally published in peer-reviewed works and documented through timestamped simulations.

Beyond serving as an alternative to the ΛCDM model, DUT offers a continuously evolving scientific platform that can function both as an additional research resource and as an inspiration for young astrophysics students seeking consistent and verifiable models in light of the current paradigm’s limitations.

Using the DUT Quantum Simulator (v4.0), compact, dust-enshrouded, high-z AGNs with broad hydrogen emission lines were modeled in detail, matching the JWST detection of CAPERS-LRD-z9 at z = 9.288 (ApJL 989 L7, DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/ade789) — the most distant AGN signature currently known. These predictions were first made public on May 31, 2025 (v1) and refined on June 24, 2025 (v2), predating the JWST data release and providing empirical support for DUT’s viability as an alternative to ΛCDM without invoking dark matter, inflation, or super-Eddington accretion.

The DUT framework further predicted additional SRD traits — elevated dust temperatures beyond standard early-galaxy expectations, overmassive black holes relative to stellar mass, velocity dispersions indicating early dynamical maturity, and the occurrence of SRDs in proto-cluster environments. DUT simulations also forecast SRD populations at z ≳ 12, some displaying double-peaked broad-line profiles from binary primordial black holes, acting as seeds for large-scale structure formation during the thermodynamic retraction phase.

Within DUT’s cosmology, SRDs are gravitational fossils of a thermodynamic retraction epoch — direct, falsifiable signatures of primordial black hole nucleation in a collapsing spacetime. This predictive, computationally validated approach offers a physically grounded alternative for interpreting extreme-redshift AGNs and reshapes the theoretical landscape of early-universe structure formation.

The Asymmetric Thermodynamic Retraction – Core Principle of the Dead Universe Theory (DUT)

The lack of a deeper understanding of entropy among many researchers has created the mistaken perception that the Dead Universe Theory (DUT) is speculative merely because it is based on the principle of Asymmetric Thermodynamic Retraction. In reality, this concept is neither metaphorical nor cyclical in the sense of a “Big Bang → collapse → new Big Bang.” Instead, DUT frames cosmic evolution as a unidirectional process of energy exhaustion, driven by entropic and gravitational gradients that lead the universe toward a state of thermodynamic infertility.

The observable universe, according to DUT, did not emerge from an “external” universe, but represents an internal structural domain composed of fine particles belonging to a larger collapsing continuum—the so-called Dead Universe. This relationship is not duality but continuity: just as a lamp illuminates a dark room while still being part of it, the observable cosmos is an illuminated fraction of a greater structure in contraction. Rejecting this vision reflects either resistance to disruptive ideas or epistemological limitations inherited from a cosmology constrained for over a century by singularities and a rigid 13.8 Gyr horizon.

Asymmetric Thermodynamic Retraction in DUT

The Asymmetric Thermodynamic Retraction is irregular, guided by density and entropy asymmetries. In this process, structures form, survive, and eventually fossilize until the cosmos reaches a stage of complete thermodynamic infertility. Unlike ΛCDM, DUT does not require inflation, dark matter scaffolding, or speculative super-Eddington accretion to explain early compact massive objects. Instead, fossilized gravitational nuclei and quiescent galaxies arise naturally as remnants of a larger entropic contraction.

It is precisely from this principle that we developed, within the DUT Quantum Simulator, the Fossil Record and Galaxy Natality Method. This method allows us to mathematically calculate the threshold of cosmic infertility by combining two observable datasets:

• the population of fossilized galaxies (quiescent systems), which serve as cosmic clocks, and

• the rate of galactic natality, which decays irreversibly over time.

By integrating these observations, DUT projects the exhaustion of usable cosmic energy with quantitative precision, estimating the final state of thermodynamic infertility between ~136 and 180 billion years.

Conclusion

The DUT framework transforms cosmology from an inflationary narrative into a thermodynamic model of irreversible contraction, where entropy is the active driver of geometry and time. Through its Quantum Simulator and the Fossil Method, DUT elevates asymmetric thermodynamic retraction from a conceptual foundation into a computational, falsifiable, and predictive tool, providing the first rigorous pathway to date the cosmic exhaustion of energy with observationally grounded mathematics.

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