Wave-Operator Cosmology: A Unified Quantum Framework Fixed by the Universal Constant α

Abstract We propose Wave-Operator Cosmology (WOC), a background-independent framework in which spacetime is characterized by a finite effective information capacity. The theory is defined by a single ultraviolet axiom fixing the inverse fine-structure constant at the Planck scale, α −1 (MPl) = N + 1 π . Consistency with the observed infrared value α −1 IR ≈ 137.036 selects a unique integer solution N = 82 under mild and explicitly stated assumptions on renormalizationgroup behavior. This integer, interpreted as an effective information core of spacetime, leads to phenomenological implications in cosmology and hydrodynamics, including an order-of-magnitude shift in the late-time expansion rate and a natural suppression mechanism for extreme gradients in fluid flows.