A Tracer-Bias Null Test for Informational-Latency Cosmology with DESI DR2 BAO

This preprint proposes a falsifiable “tracer-split” null test motivated by the MetaTime framework, modeled as an Open Effective Field Theory (Open-EFT) in which the observable sector (the brane) is coupled to an unobserved bath (the bulk). The core phenomenological hypothesis is deliberately minimal: baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) distance indicators inferred from different DESI DR2 tracers may exhibit a small, environment-correlated registration effect proportional to the tracer’s large-scale effective bias. Concretely, the manuscript introduces a one-parameter ansatz in which BAO distance residuals (log-distance ratios relative to a baseline cosmology) receive a first-order modulation proportional to (b_eff − 1), multiplied by a redshift window function f(z) that is fixed a priori (no post-hoc tuning). The analysis is designed as a clean kill-test: (1) if the best-fit amplitude is consistent with zero, the hypothesis is ruled out in its minimal form; (2) if a nonzero signal appears, it must survive strict tracer-dependent robustness checks, including tracer jackknife tests and standard BAO validation variants (pipeline/reconstruction/selection-systematics controls), otherwise it is classified as observational/systematic rather than physical. To address common reviewer concerns, the paper (i) defines b_eff operationally from independent DESI clustering/bias analyses and requires a machine-readable bias table with provenance (tracer, redshift bin, z_eff, b_eff, uncertainty, source), (ii) propagates b_eff uncertainties analytically via marginalization (which can only weaken constraints), and (iii) enforces pre-registered redshift-window variants reported regardless of outcome. The result is a survey-facing, reproducible, and decisive test that can be implemented directly on public DESI DR2 BAO summary vectors and covariances. This work is intended as a phenomenological note and reproducibility-oriented proposal: it does not claim a completed microphysical derivation of the effect, nor does it modify early-Universe physics or the sound horizon. Its scientific value lies in defining a minimal correlated pattern that can be rapidly falsified (or, if detected, cleanly separated from tracer systematics) using existing public cosmological datasets.