Time response in the Layer Theory of Spacetime: a constrained potential-coupling sector, atomic-clock bounds, and phase-domain falsification targets for driven experiments

We construct a minimal, quantitative, and explicitly falsifiable time-response sectorfor the Layer Theory of Spacetime (LTS) without introducing new particles, newforces, or additional mediating fields. In Tier I, weak-field potential changes aremapped to fractional variations of dimensionless parameters through a universalresponse scale ε0 and bounded LTS channel weights AX. Normalizing Aα ≡1 makes ε0 = c2dlnα/dΦ directly comparable to published optical-clockconstraints, yielding a conservative two-sided 95% upper-envelope bound on |ε0|.In Tier II, a single relaxation time τLTS extends Tier I to driven environments,implying a one-pole transfer function and a universal phase lag template ϕ(ω) =−arctan(ωτLTS). The novelty is the constrained LTS budgeting encoded inbounded AX together with a universal phase-template falsification target fordriven tests.We provide an experiment-facing phase-domain falsification protocol compatiblewith frequency-domain torsion-balance pipelines, including null-drive tests andmulti-frequency consistency checks.