Holographic Residual Dark Matter I: A Non-Particle Origin for the CDM-like Component

This technical preprint presents Paper I of the Holographic Residual Dark Matter framework. The work does not deny the phenomenological evidence for cold dark matter. Instead, it asks whether the effective CDM-like gravitational component required by cosmological observations may have a non-particle origin as a holographic residual gravitational response. The residual component X is defined as an effective sector left by an inflationary holographic projection-locking transition. After the projection source shuts off, the model gives rho_X proportional to a^-3. Under a dust-like effective stress-energy condition, X has w_X approximately 0 and c_s,X^2 approximately 0, and its linear perturbation equations reduce…