Ω_K Curvature ~10^-3

Analyses of the Planck CMB data combined with BAO measurements consistently find a mild but persistent preference for a slightly closed universe, with Ω_K ≈ −0.001 to −0.004, deviating from perfect flatness at roughly 2–3σ. In strict ΛCDM, any nonzero curvature is problematic because inflation predicts Ω_K ≈ 0 to high precision, and a detectable residual curvature at this level would require either a short inflationary epoch or a fine-tuned initial condition. Successive Collision Theory provides a natural mechanism for a small but nonzero apparent curvature signal. The collision that created our observable patch deposited energy and angular momentum with a specific impact parameter and collision geometry. This geometry imprints a preferred direction and a slight asymmetry in the energy distribution across the overlap volume. A small residual effective curvature term — comparable to the ratio of the impact parameter to the total collision scale — is therefore expected in any SCT universe and carries information about the specific collision geometry that produced our patch.

Furthermore, in SCT, the measured Ω_K is not a true global spatial curvature of the universe (which is zero for infinite flat spacetime) but rather an effective apparent curvature arising from the superposition of multiple nested comoving frames with slightly different local expansion rates. The gravitational superposition of overlapping frame boundaries produces apparent geodesic deviations that a single-frame ΛCDM analysis will misattribute to spatial curvature. The magnitude of this spurious curvature contribution scales with the ratio of the gravitational well overlap depth to the curvature radius of the observable universe, naturally producing values of Ω_K in the ~10⁻³ range without any fine-tuning. The Planck preference for slightly negative Ω_K is therefore not a challenge for SCT but a prediction of it: the apparent mild closure of the observable universe is an imprint of the collision geometry and the multi-frame gravitational environment we inhabit.