In this paper, we are concerned with the process of experimental information gain. Building on previous work, we show that this is a discontinuous process in which the initiating quantum-mechanical matter-instrument interactions are being turned into macroscopically observable events (EOs). In the course of time, such EOs evolve into spatio-temporal patterns of EOs, which allow conceivable alternatives of physical explanation to be distinguished. Focusing on the specific case of photon detection, we show that during their lifetimes, EOs proceed through the four phases of initiation, detection, erasure and reset. Once generated, the observational value of EOs can be measured in units of the Planck quantum of physical action h=4.136×10-15eVs. Once terminated, each unit of entropy of size kB=8.617×10-5eV/K, which had been created in the instrument during the observational phase, needs to be removed from the instrument to ready it for a new round of photon detection. This withdrawal of entropy takes place at an energetic cost of at least two units of the Landauer minimum energy bound of ELa=ln2kBTD for each unit of entropy of size kB.
In this paper, we are concerned with the process of experimental information gain. Building on previous work, we show that this is a discontinuous process in which the initiating quantum-mechanical matter-instrument interactions are being turned into macroscopically observable events (EOs). In the course of time, such EOs evolve into spatio-temporal patterns of EOs, which allow conceivable alternatives of physical explanation to be distinguished. Focusing on the specific case of photon detection, we show that during their lifetimes, EOs proceed through the four phases of initiation, detection, erasure and reset. Once generated, the observational value of EOs can be measured in units of the Planck quantum of physical action h=4.136×10-15eVs. Once terminated, each unit of entropy of size kB=8.617×10-5eV/K, which had been created in the instrument during the observational phase, needs to be removed from the instrument to ready it for a new round of photon detection. This withdrawal of entropy takes place at an energetic cost of at least two units of the Landauer minimum energy bound of ELa=ln2kBTD for each unit of entropy of size kB.
It is argued that all physical knowledge ultimately stems from observation and that the simplest possible observation is that an event has happened at a certain space-time location . Considering historic experiments, which had been groundbreaking in the evolution of our modern ideas of matter on the atomic, nuclear and elementary particle scales, it is shown that such experiments produce as outputs macroscopically observable events which represent binary decisions with regard to simple alternatives and which accumulate in the course of time into spatio-temporal patterns whose forms allow decisions to be taken concerning conceivable alternatives of explanation. Working towards elucidating the physical and information-theoretic characteristics of those elementary pieces of information we arrive at the conclusion that - unlike the events of relativity which are mere 4-tuples of spacetime coordinates - the events of observation are pieces of information endowed with the properties of physical action, spacetime extension, and Lorentz invariance. Another important aspect is that such events are produced at the expense of irreversibly dissipating energy which can be stated in Landauer diction in the form that more energy needs to be spent in the erasure of events than had previously been invested in their initiation.
Making use of the equivalence between information and entropy, we have shown in a recent paper that particles moving with a kinetic energy ε carry potential information i p o t ( ε , T ) = 1 ln ( 2 ) ε k B T relative to a heat reservoir of temperature T . In this paper we build on this result and consider in more detail the process of information gain in photon detection. Considering photons of energy E p h and a photo-ionization detector operated at a temperature T D , we evaluate the signal-to-noise ratio S N ( E p h , T D ) for different detector designs and detector operation conditions and show that the information gain realized upon detection, i r e a l ( E p h , T D ) , always remains smaller than the potential information i p o t ( E p h , T D ) carried with the photons themselves, i.e.,: i r e a l ( E p h , T D ) = 1 ln ( 2 ) ln ( S N ( E p h , T D ) ) ≤ i p o t ( E p h , T D ) = 1 ln ( 2 ) E p h k B T D . This result is shown to be generally valid for all kinds of technical photon detectors, which shows that i p o t ( E p h , T D ) can indeed be regarded as an intrinsic information content that is carried with the photons themselves. Overall, our results suggest that photon detectors perform as thermodynamic engines that incompletely convert potential information into realized information with an efficiency that is limited by the second law of thermodynamics and the Landauer energy bounds on information gain and information erasure.
This paper deals with J. A. Wheeler's proposal that each piece of reality owes its existence to observation-an approach to physics, which implies that all physical entities at their bottom are informational in character. Focusing on the double-slit experiment with photons, which is the key evidence for the wave-particle dualism of photons, this paper follows Wheeler's observational approach and interprets this experiment as a question posed to nature. Considering how the enquiry regarding the wave-particle duality of photons is answered by nature, it is shown that experimental questions are being answered by nature in the form of spatiotemporal patterns of elementary observations (EOs) which are binary pieces of information, produced by the dissipation of energy. Working through this line of thought, Wheeler's statements of "binary information gain", "observer participance" and the "impossibility of continuum idealizations of physical laws" are elucidated and connections to the Landauer Principle are made.
This work develops a process–event ontological framework for quantum theory, with particular emphasis on information, collapse, and the energetic cost of realization. The central claim is that quantum mechanics formally describes physical processes—coherent, continuous, and reversible in principle—while information, records, and outcomes arise only at the level of events, through irreversible physical realization. Within this framework, collapse is redefined not as a dynamical anomaly, but as the physical realization of a process into an event. Information is not treated as a primary entity or carrier, but as a stabilized physical imprint of events, necessarily involving energy dissipation. The framework reinterprets Landauer’s principle as a cost of record stabilization rather than bit erasure, clarifies the ontological status of qubits as energetically maintained process states, and resolves standard measurement paradoxes without modifying the formalism of quantum mechanics. This work operates at a meta-level: it does not propose new dynamics or interpretations, but explicitly delineates the boundary between quantum processes and realized events.
Every physical process, measurement, or information exchange requires distinguishing between different states. We propose that this distinction-making constitutes the fundamental activity un- derlying all physical phenomena, with energy representing the quantitative measure of distinction- making processes manifesting in spacetime. From information-theoretic variational principles, we derive the relationship E = κD connecting energy to distinction magnitude D, where κ exhibits scale-dependent manifestations interpolating between Landauer’s principle (κthermal = kB T ln 2) and Planck-scale limits (κP = ℏc/lp). This framework provides a process ontology resolving longstand- ing puzzles: the measurement problem in quantum mechanics, the physical efficacy of information, and the hard problem of consciousness. We propose experimental protocols testing the linear rela- tionship across quantum, biological, and neural systems, with specific predictions for consciousness emergence at exactly three levels of recursive distinction-making depth.
The paper deals with J. A. Wheeler´s proposal [1] that each piece of reality owes its existence due to observation - an approach to physics which implies that all physical entities at their bottom are informational in character. Focusing on the double-slit experiment with photons, which is the key evidence for the wave-particle dualism of photons, the paper follows Wheeler´s observational approach and interprets this experiment as a question posed to nature. Considering how the enquiry regarding the wave-particle duality of photons is answered by nature, it is shown that experimental questions are being answered by nature in the form of spatiotemporal patterns of elementary observations (EOs) which are binary pieces of information, produced by the dissipation of energy. Working through this line of thought, Wheeler´s statements of “binary information gain”, “observer participance”, and the “impossibility of continuum idealizations of physical laws” are elucidated and connections to the Landauer Principle being made. It is further shown that the wave-particle dualism of photons involves a dilemma of incompatible forms of existence, a problem which can be resolved by a discontinuous form of photon propagation in which photons repeatedly materialize and annihilate while being forward-shifted in space by finite distances equivalent to half the photon wavelength.