Gravitational Lensing and Shapiro Delay as Refractive Phenomena in a Photon-Sea Medium

This paper presents a refractive interpretation of gravitational lensing and the Shapiro time delay within the photon-sea medium of the Myomin Aung Theory of Everything (MATE). Instead of treating these phenomena as consequences of fundamental spacetime curvature, the work demonstrates that they arise naturally from light propagation through a structured vacuum with a spatially varying refractive index.Using Fermat’s principle and standard optical methods in a graded medium, the paper reproduces the classical solar deflection angle and the Shapiro time delay with full numerical accuracy. The formulation preserves local Lorentz invariance while providing a concrete physical mechanism for effects traditionally attributed to geometry.This work serves as a phenomenological application and validation of the MATE Master Equation, and is archived as a supplementary study (Version 1.1) under the primary theoretical framework.