Combinatorial Entropy for Distinguishable Entities in Indistinguishable States

MaRDI QIDQ3534384zbMATH OpenFDO

Authors Robert K. Niven

Publication date 3 November 2008

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/0709.3124

zbMATH Keywords

Bell numberdistinguishabilitymaximum entropy formation (MaxEnt) combinatoricsoccupancyStirling number

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Foundations of equilibrium statistical mechanics (82B03) Irreversible thermodynamics, including Onsager-Machlup theory (82B35) Measures of information, entropy (94A17)

Abstract: The combinatorial basis of entropy by Boltzmann can be written $H=N^{-1}lnmathbbW$, where $H$ is the dimensionless entropy of a system, per unit entity, $N$ is the number of entities and $mathbbW$ is the number of ways in which a given realization of the system can occur, known as its statistical weight. Maximizing the entropy (``MaxEnt) of a system, subject to its constraints, is then equivalent to choosing its most probable (``MaxProb) realization. For a system of distinguishable entities and states, $mathbbW$ is given by the multinomial weight, and $H$ asymptotically approaches the Shannon entropy. In general, however, $mathbbW$ need not be multinomial, leading to different entropy measures. This work examines the allocation of distinguishable entities to non-degenerate or equally degenerate, indistinguishable states. The non-degenerate form converges to the Shannon entropy in some circumstances, whilst the degenerate case gives a new entropy measure, a function of a multinomial coefficient, coding parameters, and Stirling numbers of the second kind.

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(3)

• Doppelgänger entropies
• Combinatorial entropies and statistics
• Combinatorial basis and non-asymptotic form of the Tsallis entropy function

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