Abstract
Contrary to the widespread belief, Shannon's information and entropy are not in general equivalent. The purpose of this Letter is to discuss their conceptual difference and to pinpoint to mathematical reason for this. This fact is further illustrated through a toy model consisting of a harmonic oscillator in a coherent state, showing explicitly the dependence of Shannon's information on the class of quantum states the system is in. The interrelation between Shannon's information and entropy is reestablished after a theorem telling which class of states maximizes the (missing) information is proved. We shall conclude that entropy is the maximum amount of missing information.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 361-365 |
| Number of pages | 5 |
| Journal | Physics Letters, Section A: General, Atomic and Solid State Physics |
| Volume | 154 |
| Issue number | 7-8 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 15 Apr 1991 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:I am indebted to J.D. Bekenstein for calling my attention to this problem and for many enlightening conversations. I am also thankful to the Ben Gurion University for its hospitality and to CNPq for partial financial support. I wish to thank J. Daboul for showing me a flaw in a previous version of the manuscript.
Funding
I am indebted to J.D. Bekenstein for calling my attention to this problem and for many enlightening conversations. I am also thankful to the Ben Gurion University for its hospitality and to CNPq for partial financial support. I wish to thank J. Daboul for showing me a flaw in a previous version of the manuscript.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| Ben Gurion University | |
| Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico |