Resolving the Hubble Tension from First Principles: An Alternative Cosmology of a Compact Universe with Time Emergent from Manifold Expansion

We present a new cosmological model based on the geometry of a finite 3D-sphere S3 embeddedin 4D Euclidean space, with radius expanding linearly at the speed of light (R = ct). This geometryfollows from a general theory in which the Universe emerges from a phase transition of the Higgs fieldfrom a 4D-ball B4 to a 3D-sphere S3 [11]. The key mechanism—the light shell expansion effect—naturally produces additional redshift during photon propagation through a dynamically evolvingcurved geometry. We demonstrate that luminosity distances are accurately described using onlytwo parameters (H0 = 69.5 ± 0.3 km/s/Mpc and α = 1.47 ± 0.01), yielding a root-mean-squareerror of 0.067 mag across redshifts from z < 0.01 (local supernovae) to z > 13 (JWST galaxies)—a32% improvement over ΛCDM. The relative statistical likelihood of our model over ΛCDM exceeds10121 according to the Akaike criterion. Critically, our model resolves the Hubble tension through aredshift-dependent effective Hubble parameter Heff0 (z) that smoothly interpolates between local (73.4km/s/Mpc)andearly-Universe (69.2 km/s/Mpc) measurements. Most significantly, the extraordinarypredictive accuracy of our redshift–distance relation—extending from nearby supernovae to the mostdistant JWST galaxies—casts serious doubt on the physical necessity of dark energy. The locallydetermined age of matter (≈ 13.4 billion years) agrees with the oldest stellar populations, resolvingthe “too old stars” problem. Predictions for objects at z > 15 can be tested with future JWST,Roman, and ELT observations.