We present a refined two-component distance metric within the Optico-Hydrodynamic Vacuum (OHV) / Primary Energy (PE) framework, in which the physical vacuum is modeled as a viscous energy medium. Cosmological redshift is attributed to coherent energy dissipation of photons propagating through this medium, rather than to metric expansion. The resulting metric features two channels of energy loss: uniform dissipation in the homogeneous vacuum, and additional dissipation when traversing large-scale cosmic structure (voids and filaments). With two free parameters (the dissipation horizon RH = c/H₀ = 4283 Mpc and the structure correction factor gamma = 0. 71), the metric is calibrated against the Pantheon+ Type Ia supernova catalog (N=1701). It achieves an excellent fit with chi-square/N = 0. 72, significantly outperforming the flat Lambda-CDM model (chi-square/N = 1. 88) with an equal number of free parameters. Furthermore, the model naturally resolves the anomalously high surface brightness of galaxies at z > 10 discovered by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), predicting observed magnitudes 2. 1 - 2. 5 mag brighter than Lambda-CDM, eliminating the need for dark energy or non-standard early star formation. Light curve broadening of SNe Ia is reproduced through vacuum-viscosity time dilation, yielding the necessary (1+z) factor through a distinct physical mechanism.
Sergey Paigachkin (2026) studied this question.