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Minimum Fisher Information
In information theory, the principle of minimum Fisher information (MFI) is a variational principle which, when applied with the proper constraints needed to reproduce empirically known expectation values, determines the best probability distribution that characterizes the system. (See also Fisher information.) Measures of information Information measures (IM) are the most important tools of information theory. They measure either the amount of positive information or of "missing" information an observer possesses with regards to any system of interest. The most famous IM is the so-called Shannon-entropy (1948), which determines how much additional information the observer still requires in order to have all the available knowledge regarding a given system S, when all he/she has is a probability density function (PDF) defined on appropriate elements of such system. This is then a "missing" information measure. The IM is a function of the PDF only. If the observer does not hav ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Information Theory
Information theory is the mathematical study of the quantification (science), quantification, Data storage, storage, and telecommunications, communication of information. The field was established and formalized by Claude Shannon in the 1940s, though early contributions were made in the 1920s through the works of Harry Nyquist and Ralph Hartley. It is at the intersection of electronic engineering, mathematics, statistics, computer science, Neuroscience, neurobiology, physics, and electrical engineering. A key measure in information theory is information entropy, entropy. Entropy quantifies the amount of uncertainty involved in the value of a random variable or the outcome of a random process. For example, identifying the outcome of a Fair coin, fair coin flip (which has two equally likely outcomes) provides less information (lower entropy, less uncertainty) than identifying the outcome from a roll of a dice, die (which has six equally likely outcomes). Some other important measu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thermodynamics
Thermodynamics is a branch of physics that deals with heat, Work (thermodynamics), work, and temperature, and their relation to energy, entropy, and the physical properties of matter and radiation. The behavior of these quantities is governed by the four laws of thermodynamics, which convey a quantitative description using measurable macroscopic physical quantity, physical quantities but may be explained in terms of microscopic constituents by statistical mechanics. Thermodynamics applies to various topics in science and engineering, especially physical chemistry, biochemistry, chemical engineering, and mechanical engineering, as well as other complex fields such as meteorology. Historically, thermodynamics developed out of a desire to increase the thermodynamic efficiency, efficiency of early steam engines, particularly through the work of French physicist Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot, Sadi Carnot (1824) who believed that engine efficiency was the key that could help France win ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scale-free Ideal Gas
The scale-free ideal gas (SFIG) is a physical model assuming a collection of non-interacting elements with a stochastic proportional growth. It is the scale-invariant version of an ideal gas. Some cases of city-population, electoral results and cites to scientific journals can be approximately considered scale-free ideal gases. In a one-dimensional discrete model with size-parameter ''k'', where ''k''1 and ''k''''M'' are the minimum and maximum allowed sizes respectively, and ''v'' = ''dk''/''dt'' is the growth, the bulk probability density function ''F''(''k'', ''v'') of a scale-free ideal gas follows : F(k,v)=\frac\frac, where ''N'' is the total number of elements, Ω = ln ''k''1/''k''''M'' is the logarithmic "volume" of the system, \overline=\langle v/k \rangle is the mean relative growth and \sigma_w is the standard deviation of the relative growth. The entropy equation of state is : S=N\kappa\left\, where \kappa is a constant that account ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Translational Invariance
In physics and mathematics, continuous translational symmetry is the invariance of a system of equations under any translation (without rotation). Discrete translational symmetry is invariant under discrete translation. Analogously, an operator on functions is said to be ''translationally invariant'' with respect to a translation operator T_\delta if the result after applying doesn't change if the argument function is translated. More precisely it must hold that \forall \delta \ A f = A (T_\delta f). Laws of physics are translationally invariant under a spatial translation if they do not distinguish different points in space. According to Noether's theorem, space translational symmetry of a physical system is equivalent to the momentum conservation law. Translational symmetry of an object means that a particular translation does not change the object. For a given object, the translations for which this applies form a group, the symmetry group of the object, or, if the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
First Principle
In philosophy and science, a first principle is a basic proposition or assumption that cannot be deduced from any other proposition or assumption. First principles in philosophy are from first cause attitudes and taught by Aristotelians, and nuanced versions of first principles are referred to as postulates by Kantians. In mathematics and formal logic, first principles are referred to as axioms or postulates. In physics and other sciences, theoretical work is said to be from first principles, or '' ab initio'', if it starts directly at the level of established science and does not make assumptions such as empirical model and parameter fitting. "First principles thinking" consists of decomposing things down to the fundamental axioms in the given arena, before reasoning up by asking which ones are relevant to the question at hand, then cross referencing conclusions based on chosen axioms and making sure conclusions do not violate any fundamental laws. Physicists include counter ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scale Invariance
In physics, mathematics and statistics, scale invariance is a feature of objects or laws that do not change if scales of length, energy, or other variables, are multiplied by a common factor, and thus represent a universality. The technical term for this transformation is a dilatation (also known as dilation). Dilatations can form part of a larger conformal symmetry. *In mathematics, scale invariance usually refers to an invariance of individual functions or curves. A closely related concept is self-similarity, where a function or curve is invariant under a discrete subset of the dilations. It is also possible for the probability distributions of random processes to display this kind of scale invariance or self-similarity. *In classical field theory, scale invariance most commonly applies to the invariance of a whole theory under dilatations. Such theories typically describe classical physical processes with no characteristic length scale. *In quantum field theory, scale inva ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zipf's Law
Zipf's law (; ) is an empirical law stating that when a list of measured values is sorted in decreasing order, the value of the -th entry is often approximately inversely proportional to . The best known instance of Zipf's law applies to the frequency table of words in a text or corpus of natural language: \ \mathsf\ \propto\ \frac ~. It is usually found that the most common word occurs approximately twice as often as the next common one, three times as often as the third most common, and so on. For example, in the Brown Corpus of American English text, the word "''the''" is the most frequently occurring word, and by itself accounts for nearly 7% of all word occurrences (69,971 out of slightly over 1 million). True to Zipf's law, the second-place word "''of''" accounts for slightly over 3.5% of words (36,411 occurrences), followed by "''and''" (28,852). It is often used in the following form, called Zipf-Mandelbrot law: \ \mathsf\ \propto\ \frac\ where \ a\ a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Schrödinger Equation
The Schrödinger equation is a partial differential equation that governs the wave function of a non-relativistic quantum-mechanical system. Its discovery was a significant landmark in the development of quantum mechanics. It is named after Erwin Schrödinger, an Austrian physicist, who postulated the equation in 1925 and published it in 1926, forming the basis for the work that resulted in his Nobel Prize in Physics in 1933. Conceptually, the Schrödinger equation is the quantum counterpart of Newton's second law in classical mechanics. Given a set of known initial conditions, Newton's second law makes a mathematical prediction as to what path a given physical system will take over time. The Schrödinger equation gives the evolution over time of the wave function, the quantum-mechanical characterization of an isolated physical system. The equation was postulated by Schrödinger based on a postulate of Louis de Broglie that all matter has an associated matter wave. The equati ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Non-equilibrium Thermodynamics
Non-equilibrium thermodynamics is a branch of thermodynamics that deals with physical systems that are not in thermodynamic equilibrium but can be described in terms of macroscopic quantities (non-equilibrium state variables) that represent an extrapolation of the variables used to specify the system in thermodynamic equilibrium. Non-equilibrium thermodynamics is concerned with transport processes and with the rates of chemical reactions. Almost all systems found in nature are not in thermodynamic equilibrium, for they are changing or can be triggered to change over time, and are continuously and discontinuously subject to flux of matter and energy to and from other systems and to chemical reactions. Many systems and processes can, however, be considered to be in equilibrium locally, thus allowing description by currently known equilibrium thermodynamics. Nevertheless, some natural systems and processes remain beyond the scope of equilibrium thermodynamic methods due to the exis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thermodynamic Equilibrium
Thermodynamic equilibrium is a notion of thermodynamics with axiomatic status referring to an internal state of a single thermodynamic system, or a relation between several thermodynamic systems connected by more or less permeable or impermeable walls. In thermodynamic equilibrium, there are no net macroscopic flows of mass nor of energy within a system or between systems. In a system that is in its own state of internal thermodynamic equilibrium, not only is there an absence of macroscopic change, but there is an “absence of any ''tendency'' toward change on a macroscopic scale.” Systems in mutual thermodynamic equilibrium are simultaneously in mutual thermal, mechanical, chemical, and radiative equilibria. Systems can be in one kind of mutual equilibrium, while not in others. In thermodynamic equilibrium, all kinds of equilibrium hold at once and indefinitely, unless disturbed by a thermodynamic operation. In a macroscopic equilibrium, perfectly or almost perfectly ba ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Variational Principle
A variational principle is a mathematical procedure that renders a physical problem solvable by the calculus of variations, which concerns finding functions that optimize the values of quantities that depend on those functions. For example, the problem of determining the shape of a hanging chain suspended at both ends—a catenary—can be solved using variational calculus, and in this case, the variational principle is the following: The solution is a function that minimizes the gravitational potential energy of the chain. History Physics The history of the variational principle in classical mechanics started with Maupertuis's principle in the 18th century. Math Felix Klein's 1872 Erlangen program attempted to identify invariants under a group of transformations. Examples In mathematics * Ekeland's variational principle in mathematical optimization * The finite element method * The variation principle relating topological entropy and Kolmogorov-Sinai entropy. In physics * ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
