Abstract

This paper studies a minimal time-symmetric operational framework in which information from initial preparation and post-selection is used to define an operational description of quantum evolution. Quantum randomness is interpreted as epistemic incompleteness rather than ontological indeterminacy. The central dynamical object is the informational coupling map Λκ(ρ) = (1 − κ)ρ + κσZ, which mixes the actual state ρ with a fixed reference state σZ. The channel itself is mathematically standard; the contribution of the manuscript is the operational interpretation of the dimensionless coupling parameter κ as a measure of boundary alignment, its entropy-based estimation under explicitly stated assumptions, and its embedding in a delayed-choice quantum random number generator (QRNG) protocol. A Gorini–Kossakowski–Sudarshan–Lindblad (GKSL) representation of the corresponding continuous-time dynamics is given using a separate relaxation rate γ, complete positivity is explicit, and no-signaling is preserved under the proposed local action. In the limit γ → 0, standard unitary quantum mechanics is recovered, whereas nonzero γ produces small deviations that can be interpreted as effective informational bias associated with post-selection. In the present framework, σZ is not treated as a universal microscopic final state, but as a context-dependent operational reference state determined by the post-selection structure used in the model.

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