Chrono-Kinetic Gravity: A Unified Effective Field Theory from Light-Cone Kinematics

Chrono-Kinetic Gravity (CKG) is a theoretical framework in which spacetime geometry, gauge interactions, and matter fields emerge from a microscopic kinetic distribution T (x, k) defined on the future light cone. The theory is formulated on a fixed Minkowski background and replaces fundamental spacetime dynamics with a kinetic description of a direction-dependent “time budget. ” Using a Lorentz-invariant wave Lagrangian and a WKB expansion, the model leads to a covariant kinetic equation of the form: kμ∂μT=CT, k^ _ T = CT, kμ∂μT=CT, where the collision integral CT is derived from wave interactions and preserves both charge and energy-momentum. Macroscopic moments of the distribution generate effective fields: scalar sector (j=0), vector sector (j=1, identified with electromagnetism), tensor sector (j=2, identified with linearized gravity). Nonlinear gravity is reconstructed via the Deser bootstrap mechanism, while higher angular harmonics (ℓ≥3 3ℓ≥3) provide a natural candidate for dark matter. In the cosmological sector, the model reproduces radiation-like scaling (ρ∝a−4 a^-4ρ∝a−4) and predicts a dynamical vacuum contribution arising from the evolution of the scalar moment ϕ0₀ϕ0, with early-time scaling Λ (a) ∝a−8 (a) a^-8Λ (a) ∝a−8 followed by kinetic relaxation to an effective constant. The framework also proposes: emergence of gauge symmetries from internal mode structure, topological origin of fermions, generation structure from index theorems on S², Yukawa-type corrections to gravity at short distances. This upload presents the analytical formulation of the theory, including: derivation of the kinetic equation, construction of macroscopic fields, conservation laws, linearized gravitational dynamics, cosmological background evolution, parametric phenomenological predictions. The theory remains partially conjectural in several sectors (cosmological perturbations, full nonlinear dynamics, and dark matter abundance), which require numerical implementation of the collision operator.