Time field dynamics as a massless explanation for dark matter phenomena

Dark matter is widely invoked to explain gravitational anomalies across cosmic scales, yet its particle nature remains unknown. Here we show that a massless scalar time field, whose spatial gradients generate effective gravitational acceleration, can reproduce dark-matter-like phenomena without invoking unseen matter or modifying General Relativity. The framework explains flat galactic rotation curves, the gravitational--baryonic separation in the Bullet Cluster, weak lensing distributions, and orbital anomalies in the outer Solar System. Across fourteen orders of magnitude in mass, the time-field coupling obeys a universal scaling relation with baryonic mass, transforming a free parameter into a predictive quantity. These results suggest that time itself may act as a physical field sourcing gravity-like effects, offering a unified alternative to particle dark matter.