New Cosmology III: Gravity as a Deficit Field

This paper presents a field-based reinterpretation of gravitational phenomena within the framework of New Cosmology. Gravity is described not as an intrinsic attractive force or a manifestation of spacetime curvature, but as a dynamical response to gradients in a deficit field generated by the obstruction of an underlying isotropic momentum-bearing flux.

Within this framework, a unified interpretation of multiple gravitational phenomena is developed. Tidal effects arise from asymmetric deficit-field structures, gravitational lensing is reinterpreted as field-dependent propagation of light, and galactic organization emerges from large-scale flux redistribution and structural field dynamics.

The work further examines the logical and physical foundations underlying Lorentz transformations. Beginning with the conventional light-clock construction and extending to clock-free derivations, it distinguishes mathematical consistency from the independent physical justification of the invariant conditions from which the Lorentz form is obtained. Particular attention is given to the physical status of null-wavefront invariance, the dual role of c as both a realized vacuum propagation speed and a universal invariant parameter, and the distinction between coordinate representation and physical propagation. The paper subsequently proposes a reinterpretation of space and time in terms of field structure, physical change, and process rates.

This paper is part of the New Cosmology series and extends the conceptual foundation established in previous works toward a structurally unified description of gravitational phenomena, light propagation, and the physical interpretation of relativistic relations.