We propose that the transition from reversible quantum correlation to an objective classical record is a thermodynamically irreversible process with a quantifiable heat signature. We formulate a three-stage taxonomy separating reversible premeasurement, irreversible record formation, and memory reset, and derive a conditional record-formation heat bound: under explicit operational conditions (C1 to C6), the irreversible record-formation channel must dissipate at least k_B T ln 2 of heat per bit of classical information created, quantified by the mutual information I(X;Y) between a prepared classical label X and the recorded outcome Y. Using an explicit system/pointer/bath model, we identify the precise stage at which this Landauer cost is paid: not during unitary premeasurement coupling, but during irreversible environmental coupling, when the pointer becomes entangled with N >> 1 environmental degrees of freedom and the record is stabilized. We design a circuit-QED differential microcalorimetry experiment using superconducting qubits and nanocalorimeters (TES or SNS nanobolometer class). The protocol employs matched ON/OFF branches that share identical premeasurement pulses and routing losses, differing only in whether an objective record is stabilized. The measurand is the per-shot differential deposited energy Delta Q = Q_ON - Q_OFF, which isolates the record-formation contribution. Four primary controls (constant-preparation null, measurement-strength scaling, reversal-delay timing sweep, and prior-variation) discriminate from systematic effects. Sensitivity analysis using demonstrated nanobolometer performance shows detection is feasible with N ~ 10^9 ON/OFF pairs at 10 mK. The bound is falsified if the observed slope of Delta Q versus I(X;Y) falls statistically below k_B T ln 2.
We propose that the transition from reversible quantum correlation to an objective classical record is a thermodynamically irreversible process with a quantifiable heat signature. We formulate a three-stage taxonomy separating reversible premeasurement, irreversible record formation, and memory reset, and derive a conditional record-formation heat bound: under explicit operational conditions (C1 to C6), the irreversible record-formation channel must dissipate at least k_B T ln 2 of heat per bit of classical information created, quantified by the mutual information I(X;Y) between a prepared classical label X and the recorded outcome Y. Using an explicit system/pointer/bath model, we identify the precise stage at which this Landauer cost is paid: not during unitary premeasurement coupling, but during irreversible environmental coupling, when the pointer becomes entangled with N >> 1 environmental degrees of freedom and the record is stabilized. We design a circuit-QED differential microcalorimetry experiment using superconducting qubits and nanocalorimeters (TES or SNS nanobolometer class). The protocol employs matched ON/OFF branches that share identical premeasurement pulses and routing losses, differing only in whether an objective record is stabilized. The measurand is the per-shot differential deposited energy Delta Q = Q_ON - Q_OFF, which isolates the record-formation contribution. Four primary controls (constant-preparation null, measurement-strength scaling, reversal-delay timing sweep, and prior-variation) discriminate from systematic effects. Sensitivity analysis using demonstrated nanobolometer performance shows detection is feasible with N ~ 10^9 ON/OFF pairs at 10 mK. The bound is falsified if the observed slope of Delta Q versus I(X;Y) falls statistically below k_B T ln 2.
We propose that the transition from reversible quantum correlation to an objective classical record is a thermodynamically irreversible process with a quantifiable heat signature. We formulate a three-stage taxonomy separating reversible premeasurement, irreversible record formation, and memory reset, and derive a conditional record-formation heat bound: under explicit operational conditions (C1 to C6) in the uncontrolled-decoherence regime (no work extraction/coherence-recovery channel), the irreversible record-formation channel must dissipate at least kB T ln 2 of heat per bit of classical information created, quantified by the mutual information I(X;Y) between a prepared classical label X and the recorded outcome Y. Using an explicit system/pointer/bath model, we identify the precise stage at which this Landauer cost is paid: not during unitary premeasurement coupling, but during irreversible environmental coupling, when the pointer becomes entangled with N >> 1 environmental degrees of freedom and the record is stabilized. We design a circuit-QED differential microcalorimetry experiment using superconducting qubits and nanocalorimeters (TES or SNS nanobolometer class). The protocol employs matched ON/OFF branches that share identical premeasurement pulses and routing losses, differing only in whether an objective record is stabilized. The measurand is the per-shot differential deposited energy ΔQ ≡ Q_ON - Q_OFF, which isolates the record-formation contribution. Four primary controls (ground-state baseline, measurement-strength scaling, reversal-delay timing sweep, and prior-variation) discriminate from systematic effects. Sensitivity analysis using demonstrated nanobolometer performance shows detection is feasible with N ~ 2 × 10^9 to 8 × 10^9 ON/OFF pairs at 10 mK for Landauer-scale residual tests at SNR ~ 10 (for σ_Q ≈ 0.32 to 0.6 zJ and ΔQ_target ≈ 9.57×10^-5 zJ). The bound is falsified if the observed residual ΔQ - kB T ln 2 · I(X;Y) falls statistically below zero.
We propose that the transition from reversible quantum correlation to an objective classical record is a thermodynamically irreversible process with a quantifiable heat signature. We formulate a three-stage taxonomy separating reversible premeasurement, irreversible record formation, and memory reset, and derive a conditional record-formation heat bound: under explicit operational conditions (C1 to C6) in the uncontrolled-decoherence regime (no work extraction/coherence-recovery channel), the irreversible record-formation channel must dissipate at least kB·T·ln(2) of heat per bit of classical information created, quantified by the mutual information I(X;Y) between a prepared classical label X and the recorded outcome Y. Using an explicit system/pointer/bath model, we identify the precise stage at which this Landauer cost is paid: not during unitary premeasurement coupling, but during irreversible environmental coupling, when the pointer becomes entangled with N ≫ 1 environmental degrees of freedom and the record is stabilized. We design a circuit-QED differential microcalorimetry experiment using superconducting qubits and nanocalorimeters (TES or SNS nanobolometer class). The protocol employs matched ON/OFF branches that share identical premeasurement pulses and routing losses, differing only in whether an objective record is stabilized. The measurand is the per-shot differential deposited energy ΔQ ≡ QON − QOFF, which isolates the record-formation contribution. Four primary controls (ground-state baseline, measurement-strength scaling, reversal-delay timing sweep, and prior-variation) discriminate from systematic effects. Sensitivity analysis using demonstrated nanobolometer performance shows detection is feasible with N ~ 2×109 to 8×109 ON/OFF pairs at 10 mK for Landauer-scale residual tests at SNR ~ 10 (for σQ ≈ 0.32 to 0.6 zJ and ΔQtarget ≈ 9.57×10-5 zJ). The bound is falsified if the observed residual ΔQ − kB·T·ln(2)·I(X;Y) falls statistically below zero.
We propose that the transition from reversible quantum correlation to an objective classical record is a thermodynamically irreversible process with a quantifiable heat signature. We formulate a three-stage taxonomy separating reversible premeasurement, irreversible record formation, and memory reset, and derive a conditional record-formation heat bound: under explicit operational conditions (C1 to C6) in the uncontrolled-decoherence regime (no work extraction/coherence-recovery channel), the irreversible record-formation channel must dissipate at least kB T ln 2 of heat per bit of classical information created, quantified by the mutual information I(X;Y) between a prepared classical label X and the recorded outcome Y. Using an explicit system/pointer/bath model, we identify the precise stage at which this Landauer cost is paid: not during unitary premeasurement coupling, but during irreversible environmental coupling, when the pointer becomes entangled with N >> 1 environmental degrees of freedom and the record is stabilized. We design a circuit-QED differential microcalorimetry experiment using superconducting qubits and nanocalorimeters (TES or SNS nanobolometer class). The protocol employs matched ON/OFF branches that share identical premeasurement pulses and routing losses, differing only in whether an objective record is stabilized. The measurand is the per-shot differential deposited energy ΔQ ≡ Q_ON - Q_OFF, which isolates the record-formation contribution. Four primary controls (ground-state baseline, measurement-strength scaling, reversal-delay timing sweep, and prior-variation) discriminate from systematic effects. Sensitivity analysis using demonstrated nanobolometer performance shows detection is feasible with N ~ 2 × 10^9 to 8 × 10^9 ON/OFF pairs at 10 mK for Landauer-scale residual tests at SNR ~ 10 (for σ_Q ≈ 0.32 to 0.6 zJ and ΔQ_target ≈ 9.57×10^-5 zJ). The bound is falsified if the observed residual ΔQ - kB T ln 2 · I(X;Y) falls statistically below zero.
We propose that the transition from quantum correlation to objective classical record is a thermodynamically irreversible process, and derive a bound: the irreversible record-formation channel must dissipate at least k_B T ln 2 of heat per bit of classical information created. Using an explicit system–pointer–bath model, we identify the precise stage at which this Landauer cost is paid: not during unitary premeasurement coupling, but during irreversible amplification when the pointer becomes entangled with N >> 1 environmental degrees of freedom. We formulate a record-formation heat bound and propose a circuit-QED differential calorimetry experiment using superconducting qubits and nanocalorimeters (TES or SNS nanobolometer class). The protocol compares heat dissipation between record-forming measurements and matched controls, yielding a differential observable ΔQ that suppresses dominant readout-chain backgrounds. Three control experiments (constant-preparation null test, measurement-strength scaling, and reversal-delay timing sweep) provide discrimination from systematic effects. Sensitivity analysis using demonstrated nanobolometer performance shows detection is feasible with N ~ 10^9 repetitions at 10 mK, achieving SNR ≳ 10. The bound is falsified if the observed slope of ΔQ versus classical information I(X;Y) falls statistically below k_B T ln 2.
We propose that the transition from quantum correlation to objective classical record is a thermodynamically irreversible process, and derive a bound: the irreversible record-formation channel must dissipate at least kBT ln 2 of heat per bit of classical information created. Using an explicit system-pointer-bath model, we identify the precise stage at which this Landauer cost is paid: not during unitary premeasurement coupling, but during irreversible amplification when the pointer becomes entangled with N ≫ 1 environmental degrees of freedom. We formulate a record formation heat bound and propose a circuit-QED differential calorimetry experiment using superconducting qubits and nanocalorimeters (TES or SNS nanobolometer class). The protocol compares heat dissipation between record-forming measurements and matched controls, yielding a differential observable ∆Q that suppresses dominant readout-chain backgrounds. Three control experiments (constant-preparation null test, measurement-strength scaling, and reversal-delay timing sweep) provide discrimination from systematic effects. Sensitivity analysis using demonstrated nanobolometer performance shows detection is feasible with N ∼ 10[9] repetitions at 10 mK, achieving SNR ≳ 10. The bound is falsified if the observed slope of ∆Q versus classical information I(X; Y ) falls statistically below kBT ln 2.
We propose that quantum measurement is a boundary event: a physically identifiable, irreversible transition in which a reversible system/pointer correlation is forced across an operational irreversibility threshold into objective classical record stabilization. We formulate a three-stage taxonomy separating reversible premeasurement (Stage 1), irreversible record formation (Stage 2, the boundary event), and memory reset (Stage 3), and identify the stage at which a Landauer-scale heat bound applies. Under explicit operational conditions (C1–C6) in the uncontrolled-decoherence regime, the record-formation channel must dissipate at least kB T ln 2 of heat per bit of classical mutual information I(X;Y). We propose a circuit-QED differential microcalorimetry experiment with matched ON/OFF branches that share identical premeasurement pulses and routing losses, differing only in whether an objective record is stabilized. The measurand is the differential deposited energy ΔQ ≡ QON − QOFF, which isolates record-formation dissipation from common-mode backgrounds. The primary deep-quantum demonstration targets the temporal coincidence of heat onset and reversibility loss via a reversal-delay sweep (Control 3), providing a distinctive boundary-event signature even when ΔQ >> kB T ln 2. Near-floor residual tests (r ≡ ΔQ − kB T ln 2 · I(X;Y)) require lower-energy pointer implementations or elevated operating temperatures and are presented as a concrete roadmap. The bound is falsified if r is negative at high statistical significance under verified conditions.