Cosmic Expansion as an Elastic Response of Spacetime

Within General Relativity, spacetime is modeled as a continuous and elastic medium responding to the presence and distribution of mass–energy. This work argues that if gravitational curvature is an elastic response of spacetime to mass–energy, then cosmic expansion—if physical rather than purely parametric—cannot be independent of that same mass–energy content. From this perspective, the assumption of a uniform and constant dark energy component (Λ) is conceptually in tension with the elastic, scale-dependent nature of spacetime itself. This version presents a refined and more coherent formulation of the original argument, with no change to the underlying conceptual framework.