Sean D Devine

Algorithmic Information Theory for Physicists and Natural Scientists (eBook, ePUB)

• Format: ePub

Produktbeschreibung

There are three traditional approaches to entropy. The first is the entropy of classical thermodynamics; the second, the entropy of statistical mechanics; and the third, the entropy of Shannon's information theory. The book shows how the concept of algorithmic entropy provides a fourth understanding that is consistent with the traditional entropies. The concept of algorithmic entropy arises from Algorithmic Information Theory (AIT), or Kolmogorov complexity as it is known to mathematicians. AIT is a subfield of information theory and computer science that concerns itself with the relationship between computation, information, and randomness. The tools of AIT have been developed over some 60 years, but have mainly been applied to mathematics, computational information issues, and data analysis. The approach has not been widely used for natural systems, as the underlying mathematics is not readily accessible to non-specialists. However, unlike classical information theory, AIT gives formal, rigorous definitions of a random string and a random infinite sequence that do not depend on physical or philosophical intuitions about nondeterminism or likelihood. This book shows that the approach provides rich insights into modelling far-from-equilibrium systems

Though AIT can provide a useful tool for scientists exploring natural systems, some critical conceptual issues need to be understood and the advances already made collated and put in a form accessible to scientists. This book has been written in the hope that readers will be able to absorb the key ideas behind AIT so that they are in a better position to access the mathematical developments and to apply the ideas to their own areas of interest. The theoretical underpinning of AIT is outlined in the earlier chapters, while later chapters focus on the applications, drawing attention to the thermodynamic commonality between ordered physical systems such as the alignment of magnetic spins, the maintenance of a laser distant from equilibrium, and ordered living systems such as bacterial systems, an ecology and an economy.

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: Institute of Physics Publishing
• Seitenzahl: 180
• Erscheinungstermin: 11. Juni 2020
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9780750326407
• Artikelnr.: 59742511

Autorenporträt

Sean D Devine obtained a PhD in physics from the University of Canterbury, New Zealand, and, after three years overseas, spent 20 years as a research physicist, in what was the New Zealand Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, before returning to university to study economics. Sean has since served as manager of the Public Good Science Fund and as executive director of The Association of Crown Research Institutes. He has also been a director of one technological company and later become chairperson of another, Robinson Seismic, before acting as its CEO during a global expansion phase. In 2002, Sean returned to university research and undertook systems research in innovation systems, sustainability and complexity theory while doing some postgraduate teaching before retiring.