PHASE VIII: The Universal Stress Test and Novel Prediction of the Z-Zero Protocol

A valid Effective Field Theory (EFT) must move beyond theoretical reinterpretation and offer falsifiable, novel predictions. Phase VIII subjects the Z-Zero Protocol to the ultimate scale-invariant stress test. We mathematically bridge the macroscopic vacuum backreaction (Dark Energy) with local entropy production (non-equilibrium thermodynamics) through Renormalization Group (RG) flow principles. By introducing a scale-dependent effective dissipation rate (), this paper proves that the universe's expansion and local chemical decay (e.g., oxidation, diffusion) are driven by the exact same physical obligation: the transition from a high-energy State 1 to an equilibrium State 0. The Novel Prediction (The Z-Zero Decoherence Bound): Resolving the apparent paradox between Lorentz-invariant cosmology and directional Lindblad operators, we propose a direct laboratory test. We predict that highly isolated, macroscopically entangled quantum systems (e.g., scaled qubit arrays) will encounter a strict, anomalous "decoherence floor" that cannot be mitigated by standard environmental shielding (). This irreducible entropy leak scales non-linearly () and is strictly proportional to the cosmological expansion rate (). This paper challenges the experimental quantum physics community to observe this macroscopic collapse, providing the first direct evidence that the mechanism accelerating the galaxies is simultaneously eroding quantum coherence.