Dark Energy as Residual Pressure Gradient Drift

The ΛCDM model provides the quantitative description of late-universe acceleration;this paper does not challenge its results within their domain of validity. Instead, itdevelops the geometric substrate from which dark energy emerges in the Cohesion UnifiedField Theory. Late-universe acceleration arises from residual pressure gradient drift: asstructural density decreases over cosmic time, the dimensionless ratio Ps+1/(ρsR(Dst))rises above unity and the inherited pressure from the next higher scale produces a slow,persistent outward recursion expansion. The cosmological constant Λ is identified as theGR projection of this inherited pressure in the low-density limit — not vacuum energyand not a constant of nature — pending formal derivation from the Cohesion UFTfield equations. A strong falsifiable prediction follows from the asymptote theorem 2:because R(Dst) → R0 = f(Ps+1) > 0 as density approaches zero, the expansion rate isbounded above and the Big Rip is geometrically excluded. Acceleration asymptoticallyapproaches a limit. This is the first geometric, mechanical, and scale-consistent accountof dark energy within the Cohesion UFT framework.