Measurement as Record-Registration: A Locked-Null Protocol for Testing Record-Level Structure in Quantum Computing Readout

Quantum measurement raises a persistent philosophical problem concerning how physical evolution, definite outcomes, and empirical records are related. This paper approaches the problem at the level of record registration. Rather than advancing a new interpretation of quantum mechanics or inferring ontology from measurement outcomes, it asks whether experimentally produced quantum‑computing readout records exhibit reproducible structure that remains after specified quantum, statistical, and device‑level explanations have been modeled. To make this question empirically discriminating, a locked‑null protocol is developed. The framework separates discovery from held‑out evaluation, specifies a hierarchy of conventional null mechanisms, tests robustness across alternative residual models, and requires matched changes in record topology before the strongest classification is permitted. Outcomes are deliberately bounded: residual structure explainable by modeled device or statistical mechanisms is classified accordingly, while failure to detect excess structure yields a bound rather than an inference of absence. The philosophical significance of the framework lies in distinguishing questions about the meaning of quantum measurement from the narrower empirical question of whether the formation of definite experimental records exhibits structure not accounted for by a declared family of conventional mechanisms. Treating measurement as record‑registration provides an operational bridge between foundational questions about definiteness and reproducible analysis of physical measurement records, without treating statistical anomaly alone as evidence for any particular ontology.