Correlation Transfer II: Dark Energy as a Steady-State Process

This paper proposes that dark energy is not a static substance but a steady-state process: a continuously turning-over population of decohered vacuum modes created by the irreversible severance of quantum entanglement at the cosmological horizon. Each "orphaned" mode is born with an intrinsic equation of state w > −1, diluting from the moment it exists and replaced by new orphans as accelerating expansion continues to break entanglement bonds. The flow equilibrium between creation and dilution maintains a constant energy density, producing an expansion history indistinguishable from a cosmological constant while the microscopic constituents are entirely dynamical. Building on the Landauer identification of Weller (2026), which derived the parameter-free prediction Ω_Λ = ln 2 ≈ 0. 6931 (consistent with Planck 2018 to 0. 2%), this paper identifies the microscopic mechanism, proves the equilibrium is a stable attractor, and establishes a thermodynamic identity E/ (TS) = (D−1) /D for conformal fields that determines the effective coupling Cₑff = 1/2 with no free parameters and no species dependence. The framework predicts wᵢntrinsic = 1/ln 2 − 2 ≈ −0. 557, testable through QFT calculation of the equation of state of decohered vacuum modes. If confirmed, this calculation would independently derive Ω_Λ = ln 2 from statistical mechanics alone, without invoking Landauer's principle, providing convergence of two independent theoretical routes to the dark energy fraction. All observable predictions (Ω_Λ, Ωₘ, zₒnset, q₀, wₑff) follow from established physics with no new fields, particles, or modifications of gravity. The framework stands or falls on a single question: whether decoherence at the cosmological horizon constitutes genuine physical erasure with real energy consequences.