Rényi Entropy and Free Energy

The Rényi entropy is a generalization of the usual concept of entropy which depends on a parameter <i>q</i>. In fact, Rényi entropy is closely related to free energy. Suppose we start with a system in thermal equilibrium and then suddenly divide the temperature by <i>q</i>. T...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: John C. Baez
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2022-05-01
Series:Entropy
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/24/5/706
Description
Summary:The Rényi entropy is a generalization of the usual concept of entropy which depends on a parameter <i>q</i>. In fact, Rényi entropy is closely related to free energy. Suppose we start with a system in thermal equilibrium and then suddenly divide the temperature by <i>q</i>. Then the maximum amount of work the system can perform as it moves to equilibrium at the new temperature divided by the change in temperature equals the system’s Rényi entropy in its original state. This result applies to both classical and quantum systems. Mathematically, we can express this result as follows: the Rényi entropy of a system in thermal equilibrium is without the ‘<inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><msup><mi>q</mi><mrow><mo>−</mo><mn>1</mn></mrow></msup></semantics></math></inline-formula>-derivative’ of its free energy with respect to the temperature. This shows that Rényi entropy is a <i>q</i>-deformation of the usual concept of entropy.
ISSN:1099-4300