PBH Scaffolding Theory: Primordial Black Holes Replace Particle Dark Matter

PBH Scaffolding Theory proposes that the large-scale gravitational scaffold of the universe — the cold, collisionless mass that drives matter–radiation equality, linear growth, halo assembly, and cluster lensing offsets — is not an elementary dark-matter particle species. The scaffold is a primordial black-hole fog: asteroid-mass PBHs (\(m \in [10^{17},\,10^{23}]\,\mathrm{g}\)) in unmodified Einstein gravity. We operationalize scaffold completeness through five independent gates (galaxies, CMB/growth, cluster offsets, GW170817 luminal tensors, mass-budget closure) and score candidates against published constraint envelopes. Under the no-particle conditional and fixed checklist \(\mathcal{T}_0\), asteroid-mass PBH dust is the sole Einstein-gravity scaffold that passes all gates. This is a working theory manuscript — a viability filter and ontological reframing, not a detection claim or formal Bayesian model comparison. Theory manuscript 1.4.1 · Advanced Research Array · CC BY 4.0