This preprint formulates a strict minimal metrological framework for cosmology with preferred temporal ordering. The central distinction is between a preferred temporal ordering parameter , governing homogeneous cosmological evolution, and the operational time realized by material clocks and used in cosmological reconstruction. Their relation is encoded by the reconstruction law , while the homogeneous Friedmann dynamics remain standard in . The empirical content of the framework lies in the acoustic ruler sector. A localized response near matter-radiation equality modifies the recombination ruler and the baryon-drag ruler through distinct reconstruction integrals, thereby generically deforming the internal ratio . The model can shift the CMB-inferred Hubble scale upward in a controlled ruler-sector proxy, most naturally as a partial correction rather than a demonstrated complete resolution of the Hubble tension. The paper also establishes an exact claim boundary: when the linear dust-plus-Poisson perturbation system is consistently rewritten in terms of the scale factor, no autonomous new linear-growth law arises at strict minimal level. The framework therefore modifies the ruler sector but not the growth sector in its exact minimal formulation. It does not provide a microscopic derivation of , a covariant or quantum completion, or a full Boltzmann/likelihood-level data confrontation.
Freddy Santermans (Mon,) studied this question.