Discrete Cosmology Model (DCM): Relativistic Group Delays as a Testable Origin of Gravity

The Discrete Cosmology Model (DCM) reinterprets gravitation and cosmological expansion as emergent manifestations of discrete, stepwise mass–energy expansion. Each domain expands at its Compton frequency, while finite-speed propagation of phase information introduces small inter-domain delays. The ensemble of these delays forms a delay-correlation tensor  whose second-order coherence reproduces the metric curvature of General Relativity for the single-body case and extends it to multi-body coherence on cosmic scales. Minimization of global delay variance, yields the universal acceleration law, linking microscopic delay variance to macroscopic curvature through the single parameter. This framework reproduces the observed redshift relation, galactic rotation without dark matter, and the predicted here empirical seismic–escape equality within self-gravitating bodies. DCM preserves Newtonian and relativistic limits for isolated masses while revealing that curvature, inertia, and redshift emerge collectively from synchronized discrete expansion delays in a Universe requiring no dark components or singular origins. On galactic scales the model reproduces the curvature of the radial-acceleration relation (RAR) with baryons only and no free parameters. On cluster scales the relativistic kinematic term naturally yields the lensing/kinematics scaling—without dark matter. In this framework, the cosmic microwave background (CMB) arises not from a primordial thermal bath but from a near-horizon visibility shell formed by delayed re-emission at the event-horizon boundary, whose statistical inhomogeneity accounts for the small observed anisotropies.