TY - JOUR
T1 - A short account of a connection of power laws to the information entropy
AU - Dover, Yaniv
PY - 2004/3/15
Y1 - 2004/3/15
N2 - We use the formalism of "maximum principle of Shannon's entropy" to derive the general power law distribution function, using what seems to be a reasonable physical assumption, namely, the demand of a constant mean "internal order" (Boltzmann entropy) of a complex, self-interacting, self-organized system. Since the Shannon entropy is equivalent to the Boltzmann's entropy under equilibrium, non-interacting conditions, we interpret this result as the complex system making use of its intra-interactions and its non-equilibrium in order to keep the equilibrium Boltzmann's entropy constant on the average, thus enabling it an advantage at surviving over less ordered systems, i.e., hinting towards an "Evolution of Structure". We then demonstrate the formalism using a toy model to explain the power laws observed in Cities' populations and show how Zipf's law comes out as a natural special point of the model. We also suggest further directions of theory.
AB - We use the formalism of "maximum principle of Shannon's entropy" to derive the general power law distribution function, using what seems to be a reasonable physical assumption, namely, the demand of a constant mean "internal order" (Boltzmann entropy) of a complex, self-interacting, self-organized system. Since the Shannon entropy is equivalent to the Boltzmann's entropy under equilibrium, non-interacting conditions, we interpret this result as the complex system making use of its intra-interactions and its non-equilibrium in order to keep the equilibrium Boltzmann's entropy constant on the average, thus enabling it an advantage at surviving over less ordered systems, i.e., hinting towards an "Evolution of Structure". We then demonstrate the formalism using a toy model to explain the power laws observed in Cities' populations and show how Zipf's law comes out as a natural special point of the model. We also suggest further directions of theory.
KW - Dynamical systems
KW - Information theory
KW - Power laws
KW - Self-organizing systems
KW - Statistical physics
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0742302967&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.physa.2003.09.029
DO - 10.1016/j.physa.2003.09.029
M3 - ???researchoutput.researchoutputtypes.contributiontojournal.article???
AN - SCOPUS:0742302967
SN - 0378-4371
VL - 334
SP - 591
EP - 599
JO - Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications
JF - Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications
IS - 3-4
ER -