Flicker Cosmology: A Substrate Field Theory of Collapse, Gravity, and Cosmological Redshift

We propose a unified substrate-based framework in which quantum superposition, wave-function collapse, gravitation, and cosmological dimming arise from the dynamics of a single underlying field. The theory introduces a real scalar order parameter, , which dynamically interpolates between superposition-dominated regimes () and collapse-dominated regimes (. The associated Lagrangian contains coupled kinetic terms for the substrate field and the collapse field , together with two tension-based potentials governing diffuse and localized configurations. In the limit , the equations of motion reduce to the standard quantum domain, reproducing the Klein–Gordon and Schrödinger equations. In the limit , collapse produces localized tension wells whose spatial gradients yield Newtonian gravity and reproduce key weak-field predictions of general relativity, including gravitational redshift, Shapiro delay, perihelion precession, and light bending. At cosmological scales, photon propagation through regions of varying collapse and superposition tension leads to a deterministic attenuation law characterized by a single physical exponent . This propagation law reproduces the observed Type Ia supernova luminosity–distance relation without invoking metric expansion, dark energy, or non-baryonic dark matter. Fitting the model to the Pantheon+ supernova compilation yields an excellent statistical match to the observed Hubble diagram with a single physical free parameter. We further show that the resulting distance–redshift relation is mathematically degenerate with Friedmann-like expansion over the supernova redshift range, while arising from a distinct physical mechanism based on substrate coherence rather than spacetime expansion. The framework yields clear, falsifiable predictions, including redshift dependence of the attenuation exponent , early structure formation, void lensing effects, and survey-dependent deviations from CDM expectations. This collapse-tension formalism provides a mathematically coherent, empirically viable, and explicitly falsifiable alternative ontology for quantum phenomena, gravitation, and cosmological dynamics within a single substrate-based field theory.