Self-Referential Superconducting Apparatus for Detecting Irreducible Energy Cost of Quantum Collapse

This proposal describes an experiment designed to test whether quantum state collapse
carries an irreducible energy cost detectable as progressive degradation of superconductivity
in a self-referential circuit. The apparatus consists of a superconducting loop operating near 0
K, in which electron flow simultaneously constitutes the coherent beam and the diffracting
structure — a closed system where the geometry of the field is determined by the flow itself.
The central prediction is that the energy loss attributable to self-measurement will be
proportional to the input energy, representing a fractional cost per collapse cycle that cannot
be attributed to thermal, resistive, or radiative channels. Two control configurations are
proposed: (A) a non-self-referential circuit with identical geometry but externally imposed
static structure at cryogenic temperature, and (B) the same self-referential circuit operated at
room temperature, where classical dissipation masks any collapse-related signal. Both
outcomes — confirmation or null result — yield meaningful physical information.