Continuous Field Dynamics and the Dark Matter Effect: A First-Principles Approach

This manuscript presents a first-principles field-based interpretation of the dark matter effect within the framework of the Universal Quantum Foam Hypothesis (UQSH). The underlying idea was first formulated by the author on 8 November 2025 and later published in an exploratory book manuscript, where radiation-induced field stress and baryonic anchoring were proposed as the origin of the observed dark matter effect. The present work develops this idea into a more explicit theoretical formulation. In this approach, radiation is not treated merely as electromagnetic energy moving through empty space, but as a propagating stress front of a continuous field medium. Every radiative process locally excites, deforms, and curves the field. The strength of this excitation depends on the energy density, frequency structure, and spatial organization of the radiation involved. However, radiation-induced excitation alone does not yet produce a stable macroscopic dark matter effect. Baryonic matter acts as an anchoring and organizing structure: it binds, stabilizes, and spatially orders the field stress generated by radiation and other energetic processes. The dark matter effect is therefore interpreted as an organized, baryonically anchored, and saturation-limited field response rather than as an additional invisible matter component. Local field stress cannot grow without bound. Once the field approaches a saturation regime, further excitation is redistributed over larger scales, producing an additional effective gravitational acceleration. This provides a possible field-mechanical explanation for why galaxies can show gravitational behavior exceeding the contribution expected from visible baryonic matter alone. The manuscript derives an effective equation in which radiation-induced field excitation, baryonic organization, saturation, and nonlocal redistribution jointly generate the observed dark matter effect. The approach remains theoretical and exploratory, but it offers a physically motivated alternative interpretation of galactic mass discrepancies, ultra-diffuse galaxies, and the baryonic dependence of gravitational excess.

Data availability

This is a theoretical manuscript. No new observational dataset was generated for this submission. Where empirical motivation is discussed, it is based on publicly available astronomical data and published rotation-curve studies cited in the manuscript. Any derived tables, code, or additional analysis files can be provided in a supplementary repository upon request or in a later version.

Ethics

This work does not involve human participants, animal subjects, medical data, private personal data, or experiments requiring ethical approval.

Funding

This research received no external funding.

Competing interests

The author declares no competing interests.