The Born Rule as a Closed Record Pair: Measurement, Objectivity, and the Arrow of Time in a Quantum-Error-Correcting Substrate

Abstract

This revised note argues that, within the accepted complex quantum-error-correcting record substrate, the quadratic Born form arises from linear record writing, orthogonality of record sectors, and isometric normalization before any probability measure is introduced. Conditional uniqueness is treated separately through Gleason-type and refinement-stable record-sector routes. The 30 August 2026 additivity-audit revision cites Jiaxuan Zhang's analysis of five Born-rule derivations (arXiv:2603.06211) and makes the premise accounting explicit: a Gleason frame function includes orthogonal additivity, while Marko Lela's route begins with a non-negative extensive valuation on disjoint continuation bundles. The closed-record-pair route assumes neither measure-level object, but establishes the quadratic form rather than a standalone uniqueness theorem. The resulting open frontier is to obtain both form and uniqueness without importing measure-level additivity. The paper also records the minimal [8,4,4] record cell and the bare monitored service rate alpha_0 = 1/137, while retaining the deeper reconstruction question as open.