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Textbook quantum physics features two types of dynamics, reversible unitarydynamics and irreversible measurements. The latter stands in conflict with thelaws of thermodynamics and has evoked debate on what actually constitutes ameasurement. With the help of modern quantum statistical mechanics, we take thefirst step in formalising the hypothesis that quantum measurements are insteaddriven by the natural tendency of closed systems to maximize entropy, a notionthat we call the Measurement-Equilibration Hypothesis. In this paradigm, weinvestigate how objective measurement outcomes can emerge within an purelyunitary framework, and find that: (i) the interactions used in standardmeasurement models fail to spontaneously feature emergent objectivity and (ii)while ideal projective measurements are impossible, we can (for a given form ofHamiltonian) approximate them exponentially well as we collect more physicalsystems together into an ``observer'' system. We thus lay the groundwork forself-contained models of quantum measurement, proposing improvements to oursimple scheme.

Quantum measurements and equilibration: the emergence of objective reality via entropy maximisation