MetaTime v36.0 (Release Candidate): A Kill-Test Compatible Kaluza–Klein EFT for Processing-Driven Dark-Sector Exchange with Gauge-Coupling Drift, Screening Tracks, and a PPF-IDE Closure

MetaTime v35.6 introduced an Einstein-frame effective field theory (EFT) inspired by Kaluza–Klein (KK) reduction: a radion/moduli sector controls (i) a phenomenological dark-sector energyexchange and (ii) slow drift of gauge kinetic functions, while screening tracks preserve local tests.A bookkeeping ambiguity in v35.6 prevented “kill tests” from being guaranteed by construction:the operational interaction map was written as Q ∝ ρc while the evolved interacting cold fluidwas denoted ρL, and the background budget double-counted cold matter via ρc,nonint + ρL. Thev35.6.2 patch implemented a minimal but decisive fix: (1) the operational interaction is definedby identity on the same interacting cold component, Q ≡ 3Hβeff(a)ρL, with βeff matched to acovariant transfer; and (2) the Friedmann budget removes ρc,nonint to avoid double counting. Inthis release-candidate update we complete the missing theoretical interface by specifying a stablelinear-perturbation closure: we write the IDE continuity/Euler system in synchronous gauge underQμ = QuμL, adopt a conservative rest-frame sound speed choice for the negative-pressure component,and formulate a PPF-style large-scale closure that enforces bounded super-Hubble curvature. Theresult is a background-consistent and perturbatively well-posed KK-motivated EFT narrative thatis ready for direct CLASS/CAMB confrontation (TT/TE/EE, lensing, and growth) without leavingstability “deferred”