The Creation of the Viscoelastic Continuum (DUT): Quantum Decoherence as the Origin of the Dead Substrate

This article develops the Creation Module of the Dead Universe Theory (DUT), proposing a non-singular cosmological origin in which the observable universe emerges from a cold, non-radiative structural continuum through an internal quantum-to-classical transition. In this framework, spacetime does not originate from an initially hot and dense singular state, nor from an external universe, but from the irreversible decoherence of a coherent, non-temporal configuration of the same physical continuum.

Prior to the emergence of observable dynamics, the continuum exists in a globally coherent state characterized by the absence of propagating radiation, negligible effective entropy, and no operational arrow of time. Quantum decoherence of this state induces a phase transition that breaks coherence and gives rise to a viscoelastic spacetime substrate dominated by structurally inert dark degrees of freedom. This process constitutes a physical “rupture” of coherence, not the creation of space or matter ex nihilo, and does not involve wormholes, parent universes, or cosmological reproduction mechanisms.

Following decoherence, local structural instabilities within the substrate lead to the formation, fusion, and collapse of excitations that later manifest as effective matter, radiation, and geometry. The universe may subsequently enter a hot thermodynamic regime as a consequence of irreversible relaxation, defect formation, and radiative coupling within the substrate, reproducing the phenomenology of a hot early universe without requiring a primordial hot Big Bang as the absolute beginning of spacetime.

Within DUT, cosmological redshift and large-scale galaxy separation arise from cumulative entropic deformation of the viscoelastic continuum, rather than metric expansion driven by dark energy. The theory reproduces standard cosmological observables (CMB, BAO, supernova distances, and large-scale structure) while remaining falsifiable through late-time observables, including a fixed, parameter-free prediction for the growth index of cosmic structures.

By formulating cosmic origin as an internal decoherence-driven transition of a single physical continuum, this work avoids singularities, external causation, and speculative multiverse assumptions, establishing a conservative yet testable alternative framework for the emergence of the observable universe.