Cosmology

Modern cosmology rests on two mysterious entities: dark matter (84% of matter) and dark energy (68% of the universe). Both are invisible, undetected directly, and invoked solely to explain observations that don't match theory. The expanding universe appears to be accelerating, defying gravitational attraction.

This paper shows that both dark matter and dark energy are artefacts of misinterpreting branched flow at cosmological scales. Just as QERP (OFT 1) explains discrete quantum behaviour without particles, and vacuum refraction (OFT 3–4) explains gravity without spacetime curvature, OFT explains cosmic structure without dark entities.

• Dark matter is a measurement artefact: gravitational lensing and galactic rotation curves result from branched flow caustics in the vacuum polarisation field, not invisible mass.
• Dark energy is an illusion: the apparent acceleration of cosmic expansion arises from interpreting redshift through an incorrect model (fixed c, expanding space) rather than the OFT model (variable c, static space with vacuum gradients).
• Cosmic structure (filaments, voids, the "cosmic web") emerges naturally from branched flow instabilities at cosmological scales — the same mechanism that creates quantum caustics at atomic scales.

Space does not expand. The universe is not inflating. What we observe as "expansion" is a redshift gradient caused by decreasing vacuum polarisation density with distance from matter concentrations. The speed of light varies spatially, creating optical effects misinterpreted as spacetime dynamics.