Dark Matter as Thermodynamic Informational Residue of Scalar-Field-Driven Cosmic Expansion

We propose that dark matter is not a particle species but the accumulated entropic residue of scalar-field-driven cosmic expansion. A minimally coupled scalar information field S(x,t) coupled to Einstein gravity generates, through irreversible quantum-to-classical transitions, a pressureless fluid with energy density ρ_DM satisfying dρ_DM/dt + 3H ρ_DM = (1-η)β Ṡ² where η = e-X is the efficiency function and X = I/B is the informational saturation fraction. This residue is cold (w = 0), scales as a⁻³, produces no electromagnetic emission, and generates gravitational effects consistent with all current CDM observations. The model reduces to ΛCDM in the limit η → 1. A key prediction: the present dark matter fraction Ω_DM ≈ 0.27 should converge toward Σ_c ≈ 0.38 at higher redshifts (z > 2), testable with Euclid and DESI.