Quantized Vacuum Attenuation: Resolving the Hubble Tension via Third-Order Nonlinear Susceptibility in a Discrete Manifold

Abstract The recent discovery of massive, chemically mature galaxies at z>10 by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), alongside the "Little Red Dot" population of compact high-redshift objects, presents a significant challenge to the ΛCDM concordance model. We propose a unified dark sector mechanism—treating the vacuum as a discrete manifold with finite information capacity—that simultaneously resolves the Hubble Tension and the nature of Dark Matter. We derive a Quantized Vacuum Attenuation coefficient (α ≈ 8.26 × 10⁻²⁷ m⁻¹) based on the Shannon-Nyquist limit of a Planck-scale lattice. In this model, cosmological redshift is reinterpreted as a non-scattering loss of photon energy due to discrete propagation costs (attenuation) rather than metric expansion. We demonstrate that this static, Euclidean model accurately predicts the angular size scaling of the "Little Red Dots," resolves the "Impossible Early Galaxy" problem by extending the formation timeline, and calculates a Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) temperature of ≈2.7 K as the thermodynamic noise floor of the vacuum.