Gravitational Light Bending from a Single Push-Out Field Distortion

Overview This manuscript reconstructs the measured 1.75 arcsecond solar deflection of starlight within Hyperbrane Relativity (HBR), a geometric extension of general relativity in which the observable universe is modeled as a 3-brane translating through a flat, four-dimensional Euclidean bulk. Main Result In HBR, a mass is a localized push-out, or density enhancement, of the primary field ψbulk, and light is a transverse brane-section wave that refracts through this density. The weak-field refractive index n(r) = 1 - αΦN/c² is therefore treated as a single-channel optical response, not as a sum of separate temporal and spatial contributions. With α = 2 fixed by the Shapiro/Cassini bound γ = 1, the model reproduces δθ = 4GM/(c²b) ≈ 1.75 arcseconds. Epistemic Status Derived within HBR: the field ΦN and the single push-out refraction mechanism. Empirically fixed at present: the coefficient α = 2. Open Problem O55k: a first-principles local derivation of α = 2 from the ψbulk field equation. The familiar “second half” of the solar deflection is therefore not treated as a separate HBR effect. It is interpreted as the way general relativity’s two-component metric bookkeeping accounts for the same observable. Strong-Field Extension The same single-density ontology is extended to the Shapiro delay, the parametrized-post-Newtonian limit, and a strong-field verification programme for horizonless compact objects. In this extension, a BH-mimic is not tested by the presence of a ring image alone. Instead, it must satisfy an over-constrained signature predicted by one dispersive shielding shell: nonzero and chromatic central floor; chromatic ring-edge softening; polarization-dependent opacity; delayed low-frequency leakage; energy-budget closure. Throughout the manuscript, measured numbers are used only as final comparisons, never as inputs.