This technical preprint presents Paper I of the Holographic Residual Dark Matter framework. The work does not deny the phenomenological evidence for cold dark matter. Instead, it asks whether the effective CDM-like gravitational component required by cosmological observations may have a non-particle origin as a holographic residual gravitational response. The residual component X is defined as an effective sector left by an inflationary holographic projection-locking transition. After the projection source shuts off, the model gives rhoX proportional to a^-3. Under a dust-like effective stress-energy condition, X has wX approximately 0 and cₛ, X² approximately 0, and its linear perturbation equations reduce to the standard CDM form. The note also estimates the present effective density rhoX, 0 and the small residual fraction required near projection lock-in or reheating. This is Paper I of a planned series. Galaxy-scale phenomenology, extended flat circular velocities, and merging-cluster lensing/gas offsets are reserved for subsequent notes.
Ming-Ko Chung (Mon,) studied this question.