Exponential Attenuation of Photons in Inhomogeneous Vacuum: A Wave-Based Interpretation of Cosmological Redshift

Abstract

A wave-based interpretation of cosmological redshift is proposed: photons lose energy exponentially as they propagate through an inhomogeneous vacuum with complex refractive index. The model is tested against the Pantheon+ supernova dataset (1701 objects). Fitting yields χ2 = 710.5 compared to 1048.4 for the standard ΛCDM model. The improvement ∆χ2 = -337.9 corresponds to a statistical significance exceeding 20σ. No dark energy or cosmological constant is required.