### AbstractCoordinate Density Field Theory (CDFT) models the operational gravitational sector through a dimensionless scalar compression field on a fixed Minkowski reference. Operational rods and clocks follow an exponential physical metric; for sourcing/variation only, matter couples via an isotropic Weyl rescaling, yielding a trace-sourced field equation on a vacuum-subtracted weak-field branch. Although scalar-led, CDFT includes a non-propagating gravitomagnetic potential and a minimal transverse-traceless tensor sector, so it is not purely scalar. In the static weak-field limit it reproduces the leading post-Newtonian tests (with both PPN parameters equal to 1). For a non-spinning exponential exterior it predicts a photon-ring diameter +4.6% relative to Schwarzschild at fixed mass and distance, and with an absorbing-boundary prescription gives no long-lived echoes. If interiors depend only on relative compression, sensitivities vanish and dipole radiation is absent, leaving a suppressed quadrupolar scalar channel. A Lambda-free FRW branch yields late-time acceleration as a boundary-fixed integration mode; a GR-emulator dictionary is given for late-time sub-horizon linear comparisons. Galaxy phenomenology uses a one-scale mu-law tied to the expansion rate, and a local-domain offset provides a possible rescaling of distance-ladder inferences without changing the global expansion history. ### File- `CDFT.pdf` — compiled preprint (v3; March 5, 2026) ### How to citeAwdhoot, Tushar (2026). *Coordinate Density Field Theory (CDFT): A Split-Metric Coordinate-Compression Framework for Gravity* (Version v3). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18877599
Tushar Awdhoot (Thu,) studied this question.