English

Is the Information Entropy the Same as the Statistical Mechanical Entropy?

Statistical Mechanics 2012-09-26 v1 Chemical Physics Data Analysis, Statistics and Probability

Abstract

It is shown that the standard expression for the information entropy, originally due to Shannon, is only valid for a particular set of states. For the general case of statistical mechanics, one needs to include an additional term in the expression for the entropy as a function of the probability. A simple derivation of the general formula is given.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1209.5500,
  title  = {Is the Information Entropy the Same as the Statistical Mechanical Entropy?},
  author = {Phil Attard},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1209.5500},
  year   = {2012}
}

Comments

4 pages

R2 v1 2026-06-21T22:10:32.406Z