Toward a Testable Temporal Field Theory: Spatially Structured Time, Entropy Coupling, and Physical Experience

The nature of time remains one of the deepest unresolved challenges in fundamental physics. Classical and quantum frameworks both treat time as an external, immutable parameter—unaffected by the evolution of matter, space, or information. This asymmetry leaves open fundamental questions about the origin, variability, and physical reality of temporal flow.Temporal Field Theory (TFT) proposes that time is a genuine dynamical scalar field, \( \mathcal{T}(x^\mu)\ \), locally defined over spacetime and sourced by entropy and information flux. Unlike prior models, which treat temporal variation as emergent, relational, or stochastic, TFT introduces a covariant Lagrangian formulation that includes kinetic, potential, and source terms tied to informational and thermodynamic structure. The resulting field equations predict curvature ("chronocurvature"), tension ("chronotension"), and spatial non-uniformity in time flow—phenomena absent from standard relativity or quantum theory.TFT systematically unifies gravitational time dilation, quantum decoherence, and cognitive time perception within a single field-based framework. It predicts experimentally accessible effects such as entropy-induced clock drift, information-driven modulation of quantum coherence, and cognitive timing shifts under variable informational load. Importantly, measurable information flux and entropy gradients act as physical sources for the temporal field, allowing direct experimental access. Potential test platforms include atomic clock networks, superconducting qubits, brain-computer interfaces (BCI), and autonomous vehicle (AV) quantum sensor systems. Observed small timing drifts and decoherence instabilities in such systems, traditionally attributed to noise, may offer early empirical signatures of underlying entropy-structured time dynamics. By linking time-field structure to measurable gradients in physical and neural systems, TFT offers a unified bridge between spacetime geometry, information theory, and experiential temporality.