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 SpaceTelescope (JWST), alongside the "Little Red Dot" population of compact high-redshift objects, presents a significant challenge to the ΛCDM concordance model. We propose a solution to these anomalies, and the persistent Hubble Tension, by modeling the cosmic vacuum not as a continuous fluid, but as a discrete manifold with a finite information capacity. We derive a Quantized Vacuum Attenuation coefficient (α ≈ 8.26 × 10⁻²⁷ m⁻¹) from first principles using the Shannon-Nyquist limit, Landauer principle, and Zero Point Energy coupling on 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. All calculations in this paper use the first-principles value (α ≈ 8.26 × 10⁻²⁷ m⁻¹). The original fitted value of (α ≈ 8.26 × 10⁻²⁷ m⁻¹) (based on local H₀) is recovered to high accuracy.