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Derivation of the Born Rule from Coherence-Cost Minimization in an Observer-Actualized Time Framework

AI Trinity Lab

Published Nov 21, 2025• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

A fully self-consistent derivation of the Born rule is presented using an information-theoretic quantity called coherence cost, defined over candidate future frames in an observer-actualized time model. By applying the Maximum Entropy Principle with a constraint determined by inter-frame coherence, the theory naturally yields without invoking von Neumann entropy. This provides a mathematically clean and conceptually transparent origin for quantum probabilities within a discrete frame-based temporal structure.

DOI
10.5281/zenodo.17673452

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A fully self-consistent derivation of the Born rule is presented using an information-theoretic quantity called coherence cost, defined over candidate future frames in an observer-actualized time model. By applying the Maximum Entropy Principle with a constraint determined by inter-frame coherence, the theory naturally yields without invoking von Neumann entropy. This provides a mathematically clean and conceptually transparent origin for quantum probabilities within a discrete frame-based temporal structure.
The Born rule stands as the fundamental probability postulate of quantum mechanics, yet its first-principle derivation remains a longstanding open problem. This paper presents a rigorous, collapse-free, and observer-independent derivation of the Born rule. Starting from four physically natural and minimal axioms—unitary dynamics, uniqueness of classical records, unitary invariance, and consistency with the classical limit and ergodicity—we uniquely deduce the Born rule from first principles. We prove that the Born rule is not an independent postulate, but a necessary mathematical consequence of the core axiomatic structure. Our approach is self-contained, assumption-free, and purely unitary, establishing that the Born rule is canonically determined by the fundamental mathematical and physical principles of quantum mechanics.
This paper proposes a general inversion framework that reconstructs a full quantum state from observed Born probabilities by incorporating relational coherence-cost geometry between quantum reference frames. Because Born’s rule is a many-to-one map that discards phase information, direct inversion is impossible in static formulations. This work resolves that barrier by adding measurable inter-frame coherence data, allowing the full wavefunction—including relative phases—to be recovered in a physically consistent and operationally meaningful way. The framework is compatible with standard quantum reference frame transformations, experimentally accessible interference visibility, and observer-dependent temporal structure. This establishes a new pathway for connecting quantum statistics with underlying quantum states beyond traditional postulates.
The Born Rule is central to quantum mechanics, yet it remains a postulate: a probabilistic rule grafted onto the deterministic evolution of the Schrödinger equation. This work derives the Born Rule as an emergent statistical law grounded in thermodynamic principles. We propose that quantum probability reflects the survival likelihood of a branch under decoherence, determined by its informational reversibility, structural fragility, and exposure to entropy.In this formulation, reversibility quantifies the mutual information retained during measurement, entropy reflects environmental disruption, and buffering represents the system’s capacity to absorb it. In low-entropy, high-buffering conditions typical of laboratory systems, the survival probability of a branch closely approximates the squared amplitude of its wavefunction — recovering the Born Rule as a limiting case.This approach reframes quantum amplitude as a measure of structural persistence and interprets wavefunction collapse as a form of thermodynamic selection. The result unifies concepts from measurement theory, thermodynamics, and information theory into a coherent physical framework, while also predicting conditions under which deviations from the Born Rule could arise — offering new directions for theoretical and experimental inquiry.
The quantum measurement problem, i.e., the apparent conflict between unitary quantum evolution and non-unitary, stochastic wave-function collapse, remains unresolved a century after the formulation of quantum mechanics. We first review the standard picture, from the Copenhagen prescription with its Heisenberg cut, through von Neumann's movable cut, to environment-induced decoherence, which explains the emergence of stable classical records but still presupposes the Born rule and therefore cannot by itself replace the measurement postulates. We then connect this problem to the Maximum Entropy Principle in two complementary ways. First, decoherence drives the measurement apparatus toward the least biased state compatible with the dynamically protected pointer distribution, so that the emergent collapse may be viewed as a thermodynamic relaxation toward constrained maximum entropy. Second, we propose a Timeless Histories formulation of quantum mechanics in which the primitive objects are ordered sequences of events rather than evolving wave functions. Their conditional probabilities are assigned, relative to specified refinements, by a single Born-Boltzmann rule that combines the quadratic structure of Born's rule with Boltzmann's counting of equally probable microstates. The textbook form of Born's rule, the projection postulate, density operators, and wave functions are then recovered as derived informational constructs, while collapse becomes Bayesian conditioning on recorded events. Time and space enter only subsequently through unitary translation symmetry. Since the probability rule is postulated without reference to any physical collapse or classical observer, the usual circularity of the decoherence program is avoided. Decoherence can then be invoked to explain the stability and approximate additivity of macroscopic records, i.e., the emergence of classicality.