Zipf's law from a Fisher variational-principle

DOI10.1016/J.PHYSLETA.2009.10.027zbMATH Open1235.82005arXiv0908.0501OpenAlexW2165948247WikidataQ56768334 ScholiaQ56768334MaRDI QIDQ763770FDOQ763770

Authors: A. Hernando, D. Puigdomènech, D. Villuendas, C. Vesperinas, A. Plastino 

Publication date: 2 April 2012

Published in: Physics Letters. A (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: Zipf's law is shown to arise as the variational solution of a problem formulated in Fisher's terms. An appropriate minimization process involving Fisher information and scale-invariance yields this universal rank distribution. As an example we show that the number of citations found in the most referenced physics journals follows this law.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/0908.0501

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zbMATH Keywords

Fisher informationZipf's lawscale-invariance

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Measures of information, entropy (94A17) Variational principles of physics (49S05) Classical equilibrium statistical mechanics (general) (82B05)

Cites Work

• Statistical mechanics of complex networks
• Title not available (Why is that?)
• Zipf's Law for Cities: An Explanation
• Fisher information as a measure of time
• On the relationship between the Fisher-Frieden-Soffer arrow of time, and the behaviour of the Boltzmann and Kullback entropies
• Physical symmetries and Fisher's information measure
• Fisher information, canonical ensemble, and Hamiltonian systems
• Title not available (Why is that?)
• A lower bound for Fisher's information measure

Cited In (13)

• Study of a measure of efficiency as a tool for applying the principle of least effort to the derivation of the Zipf and the Pareto laws
• Quantum trajectories emerging from classical phase space
• Analysis of an information-theoretic model for communication
• Zipf's law unzipped
• Zipf's law, power laws and maximum entropy
• Universality of Zipf's Law
• Fisher information and quantum potential well model for finance
• Fisher information, the Hellmann-Feynman theorem, and the Jaynes reciprocity relations
• Zipf's law and L. Levin probability distributions
• Zipf law: an extreme perspective
• Unravelling the size distribution of social groups with information theory in complex networks
• On the universality of rank distributions of website popularity
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