The Fractal Multiverse (Version 115.5): A CPT-Symmetric Cosmology with Complete First-Principles Derivations of Gravity, Emergent Time, and the Origin of Mass

The Fractal Multiverse — Version 115.5A comprehensive, first-principles cosmological framework in which our expanding 4D universe is the CPT-conjugate of a collapsing 5D parent universe. The theory is organized around seven interlocking pillars, each derived from a single five-dimensional Einstein–Gauss–Bonnet (EGB) action, and is deliberately overconstrained so that independent observations confront the same parameter set.The seven pillars:Pillar I — CPT Inflation. Inflation derived as the time-reversed image of the parent's exponential collapse, with explicit vertex matching conditions for gauge-invariant perturbations; no separate inflaton required.Pillar II — EGB Bounce. A proven non-singular bounce (Theorem 5.1) on the GR-connected branch of the cubic Friedmann constraint, with a fully worked EGB–AdS₅ realization. Strictly 5D: the framework does not rely on the Glavan–Lin 4D limit.Pillar III — Graviton Pair Production and Higgs Genesis. Parker-mechanism particle creation at the vertex; KK-graviton traversal of the CPT boundary as a contractive CPTP map seeds electroweak symmetry breaking. The 5D Dirac lifting yields the chiral projection rule; the downstream homochirality application is flagged as speculative.Pillar IV — Ancestral Gravity Field. Dark-matter phenomenology identified with the massive KK tower of the 5D graviton: Sturm–Liouville spectrum from a thick-brane EGB action, proven ghost freedom and luminal propagation (GW170817-safe by construction), positive causal Yukawa superposition, and native UV regularization via the brane overlap form factor.Pillar V — Λ-Damping. The CPT vertex as a noisy quantum channel; the data-processing inequality guarantees monotone decrease of the vacuum energy. The per-generation contraction ratio q is identified as the vacuum-sector Kraus-operator overlap — dimensionless and generation-independent by construction. The naïve identification of q with the absolute Parker production energy is tested explicitly in this version and withdrawn (see changelog). For q ≈ 0.06, a Planck-scale vacuum energy is reduced by 10¹²² in ~100 generations. Global state formalized via the Master Equation Ĥ[𝓔ⁿ_q(Ψ₀)] = 0.Pillar VI — Planckeon Conduit Network. The bulk ground state as a maximally dense foam of Planck-scale Einstein–Rosen bridges. Newton's constant derived from foam properties; the conduit scaling exponent α_c = 1/2 derived from the Gaussian brane form factor; the Radial Acceleration Relation and deep-MOND limit emerge with a* = 1.37×10⁻¹⁰ m/s², within 14% (1σ) of the measured a₀, from shape-fitted SPARC parameters (Σ* = 159 ± 9 M⊙/pc² across 120 galaxies).Pillar VII — Gauge Fields from Conduit Throat Topology. U(1) from ℓ = 1 vector harmonics on the S² throat cross-section; charge quantization in units of e/3 from π₂(S²) winding; the fine structure constant fixing the brane thickness Δ ≈ 2.64 ℓ_P; SU(3) honestly framed as an open problem.New in v115.5 (relative to v113.0, the previous archived version):Versions 114.0–115.0 attacked the outstanding-calculations list directly; v115.5 is the consistency-swept submission baseline. Highlights:Homogeneous-limit m_eff closure analysis: of two natural closures, Closure A is falsified by CMB constraints (0.373·H at recombination); Closure B is uniquely selected via the α_c construction and a Jeans-swindle argument, so BBN and recombination see G_lab by construction.Corrected damping factor q (honest negative result): the identification q = 1 − Γ_Parker·τ_vertex fails self-consistently under either natural closure of H_b(n) — power-law rather than exponential decay in one case, an unphysical vacuum-energy sign flip in the other. The corrected target, q = ⟨0|M†_k M_k|0⟩ (vacuum-sector Kraus overlap), is dimensionless and generation-independent by construction; its explicit evaluation on the EGB bounce background is the correctly posed outstanding calculation.Exact throat wave equation (Pillar VII): the ad hoc transmission ansatz is replaced by the exact ℓ = 1 radial wave equation on the throat metric, yielding a closed-form propagating/evanescent threshold at m_n = M_throat — sub-threshold AGF modes are evanescent everywhere, not merely suppressed. WKB is shown to be only marginally valid at the Planck-scale throat; the residual task is a specific bounded numerical boundary-value problem.Stabilization mechanism for the inter-slice separation d: Casimir attraction vs. Gauss–Bonnet repulsion gives a stable equilibrium d* = √(κ_GB/5π²) ℓ_P ≈ 6.6√κ_GB ℓ_P, consistent with the required 15 ℓ_P for κ_GB ≈ 5.1 (an O(1)–O(10) junction-condition coefficient not yet computed independently). Until κ_GB is derived from the two-brane EGB junction condition, the α_EM → Σ* chain remains an internal consistency relation (via Remark 10.5), not yet a parameter-free prediction.Wide binaries: the framework's saturated-to-dispersed conduit transition is confronted with the reported low-acceleration velocity boost in wide-binary samples as a postdiction — the comparison uses the SPARC-calibrated posterior, and the wide-binary data were published before this version; the corresponding forward prediction is the specific boost profile across the transition, testable against future Gaia releases.Full DESI DR2 engagement with a residual-relaxation extension; Deng–Handley quantized Ω_K spectrum integration as a shared falsifiable stake; Einstein–Cartan recast of baryogenesis with an explicit robust/conjectural split; LVK GWTC-3 graviton-mass bound contextualization; Pinčák Einstein–Cartan remnant synthesis via interior/exterior complementarity.Honest-status framing: every result is tagged as derived, consistency-constrained, or open. The manuscript maintains an audit table (Section 1.4) separating assumed inputs from derived outputs, and an outstanding-calculations list (Section 13.1) stating exactly what remains: the two-brane κ_GB junction coefficient, the numerical ℓ = 1 boundary-value problem, and the vacuum-sector Kraus overlap.Fit reproducibility: SPARC rotation-curve fits use the public SPARC sample; low reduced χ² values (0.10–0.22) reflect the sample's conservatively estimated observational uncertainties rather than overfitting (no per-galaxy curve-fitting is performed; the kernel is universal).Comments and technical correspondence welcome: [email protected]