Instantaneous Field-Response Model: Reinterpreting Light Propagation, Signal Latency, and Cosmological Redshift Beyond Time-of-Flight and Metric Space Expansion Frameworks

Abstract

This paper presents the Instantaneous Field-Response Model, a non-metric theoretical framework challenging standard cosmological models by replacing metric space expansion with a medium-density dissipation law (Medium X). The model accounts for signal latency, light propagation, and cosmological redshift without relying on time-of-flight delays or dark matter/energy assumptions, validated against empirical observational data from observational astrophysics.