Gibbs Energy Redistribution Theory (GERT): A Thermodynamic Cosmology for the Hubble Tension and Beyond

Background: Persistent cosmological tensions — particularly in the Hubble constant (H0) — motivate physically grounded alternatives to ΛCDM. We propose the Gibbs En- ergy Redistribution Theory (GERT): a thermodynamic framework in which matter- and Λ-like contributions are promoted to density-controlled functions derived from the Gibbs free energy criterion. GERT interprets dark components as emergent manifestations of a single Primordial Enthalpic Reservoir, without new fields or fine-tuning. Methods: The dynamical H(z) is obtained by promoting FLRW source terms to thermodynamic functions fM (ρ) and fL(ρ), calibrated via MCMC against CMB, BAO, and Type Ia supernova data. Model complexity is reduced from 12 to 2 free parameters through thermodynamic priors. Results: The two-parameter implementation achieves χ2/dof ≈ 0.99 and infers H0 ≈ 72.5 km s−1 Mpc−1, consistent with local distance-ladder determinations. GERT outper forms ΛCDM on WAIC and AIC. Conclusions: GERT provides a thermodynamically causal account of cosmic evolution. The frozen parameter set constitutes a quantitative prediction accessible to future low-redshift probes.