AI–Based Benchmarking of the Methane Metauniverse (MMU) A Comparative Audit Using Gemini, Copilot, and Independent Evaluation

This work presents a controlled AI–human collaboration study investigating whether large language models can assist in the formation and critical evaluation of a radically non-standard physical theory. Over a three-month period, the Methane Metauniverse (MMU) framework was developed under strict canonical constraints and documented as a public, modular corpus. Independent AI systems were then used as epistemic auditors to reconstruct, classify, and critically assess the framework using a fixed, reproducible protocol. The study focuses on methodological rigor, auditability, and hallucination control rather than physical validation, and positions AI-based audits as a neutral pre-review stage for assessing internal coherence and scientific maturity prior to expert peer review.