Measurement-Induced Irreversibility in Quantum Circuits: Evidence for an Internal Complex Structure of Time

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Autor principal: Ishibashi, Toru
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Publicado: Zenodo 2026
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author Ishibashi, Toru
author_facet Ishibashi, Toru
contents <p><strong><span lang="EN-US">ABSTRACT</span></strong></p> <p><span lang="EN-US">We report a systematic, measurement-induced irreversibility in superconducting quantum circuits that is not accounted for by any tested conventional noise model. Using IBM Quantum processors (ibm_marrakesh and ibm_kingston), we implement a time-reversal protocol in which mid-circuit measurements are inserted between a unitary <em>U</em> and its inverse <em>U</em>†. The fidelity deficit Δ<em>F</em> = <em>F</em>(dummy) − <em>F</em>(meas) grows linearly with measurement count <em>M</em>, reaching Δ<em>F</em> = 0.235 (22.2σ) and Δ<em>F</em> = 0.164 (24.0σ) at <em>M</em> = 8 on the two processors. Three independent controls rule out conventional noise sources: (1) <em>T</em>-independence of the spectator-qubit phase shift (<em>dA</em> ≈ +0.10 at <em>T</em> = 40 and 80 μs) eliminates crosstalk and leakage; (2) a non-Markovian symmetry test (spread = 1.5σ) eliminates decoherence asymmetry; and (3) cross-backend reproducibility of the linear Δ<em>F</em>(<em>M</em>) scaling eliminates hardware-specific measurement noise. The three observations share a common structural feature: the irreversibility is tied to discrete measurement events rather than free-evolution time, accumulates proportionally to their count, and reproduces across independent hardware. We report these observations as experimental evidence consistent with the interpretation that the imaginary unit <em>i</em> in the Schrödinger equation reflects a physically real internal structure of time, and that quantum measurement drives an irreversible projection of that structure onto the real axis. This interpretation is developed from first principles in Sec. II and connected to an existing theoretical framework [13] in Sec. VI.</span></p> <p><span lang="EN-US"><strong>Keywords</strong>quantum computing, mid-circuit measurement, complex time, irreversibility, IBM Quantum, time-reversal protocol</span></p> <p> </p>
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publishDate 2026
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spellingShingle Measurement-Induced Irreversibility in Quantum Circuits: Evidence for an Internal Complex Structure of Time
Ishibashi, Toru
<p><strong><span lang="EN-US">ABSTRACT</span></strong></p> <p><span lang="EN-US">We report a systematic, measurement-induced irreversibility in superconducting quantum circuits that is not accounted for by any tested conventional noise model. Using IBM Quantum processors (ibm_marrakesh and ibm_kingston), we implement a time-reversal protocol in which mid-circuit measurements are inserted between a unitary <em>U</em> and its inverse <em>U</em>†. The fidelity deficit Δ<em>F</em> = <em>F</em>(dummy) − <em>F</em>(meas) grows linearly with measurement count <em>M</em>, reaching Δ<em>F</em> = 0.235 (22.2σ) and Δ<em>F</em> = 0.164 (24.0σ) at <em>M</em> = 8 on the two processors. Three independent controls rule out conventional noise sources: (1) <em>T</em>-independence of the spectator-qubit phase shift (<em>dA</em> ≈ +0.10 at <em>T</em> = 40 and 80 μs) eliminates crosstalk and leakage; (2) a non-Markovian symmetry test (spread = 1.5σ) eliminates decoherence asymmetry; and (3) cross-backend reproducibility of the linear Δ<em>F</em>(<em>M</em>) scaling eliminates hardware-specific measurement noise. The three observations share a common structural feature: the irreversibility is tied to discrete measurement events rather than free-evolution time, accumulates proportionally to their count, and reproduces across independent hardware. We report these observations as experimental evidence consistent with the interpretation that the imaginary unit <em>i</em> in the Schrödinger equation reflects a physically real internal structure of time, and that quantum measurement drives an irreversible projection of that structure onto the real axis. This interpretation is developed from first principles in Sec. II and connected to an existing theoretical framework [13] in Sec. VI.</span></p> <p><span lang="EN-US"><strong>Keywords</strong>quantum computing, mid-circuit measurement, complex time, irreversibility, IBM Quantum, time-reversal protocol</span></p> <p> </p>
title Measurement-Induced Irreversibility in Quantum Circuits: Evidence for an Internal Complex Structure of Time
url https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19279966