{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,3]],"date-time":"2026-04-03T00:10:47Z","timestamp":1775175047374,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":59,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"5","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2020,5,13]],"date-time":"2020-05-13T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1589328000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/100016296","name":"Federico and Elvia Faggin Foundation","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["n\/a"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["n\/a"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100016296","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Symmetry"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Descriptions of measurement typically neglect the observations required to identify the apparatus employed to either prepare or register the final state of the \u201csystem of interest.\u201d Here, we employ category-theoretic methods, particularly the theory of classifiers, to characterize the full interaction between observer and world in terms of information and resource flows. Allocating a subset of the received bits to system identification imposes two separability constraints and hence breaks two symmetries: first, between observational outcomes held constant and those allowed to vary; and, second, between observational outcomes regarded as \u201cinformative\u201d and those relegated to purely thermodynamic functions of free-energy acquisition and waste heat dissipation. We show that breaking these symmetries induces decoherence, contextuality, and measurement-associated disturbance of the system of interest.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/sym12050810","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2020,5,14]],"date-time":"2020-05-14T02:55:41Z","timestamp":1589424941000},"page":"810","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":24,"title":["Representing Measurement as a Thermodynamic Symmetry Breaking"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"12","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4812-0744","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Chris","family":"Fields","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"23 Rue des Lavandi\u00e8res, 11160 Caunes Minervois, France"}]},{"given":"James F.","family":"Glazebrook","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, Eastern Illinois University, Charleston, IL 61920, USA"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2020,5,13]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","unstructured":"Butterfield, J., and Earman, J. 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