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Why the Shannon and Hartley entropies are ‘natural’

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2016

J. Aczél ,
B. Forte  and
C. T. Ng
J. Aczél
Affiliation:
University of Waterloo, Ontario
B. Forte
Affiliation:
University of Waterloo, Ontario
C. T. Ng
Affiliation:
University of Waterloo, Ontario
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Abstract

The following properties of entropies, as measures of expected information, seem natural. The amount of information expected from an experiment does not change if we add outcomes of zero probability (expansibility). The expected information is symmetric in the (probabilities of the) outcomes. The information expected from a combination of two experiments is less than or equal to the sum of the informations expected from the single experiments (subadditivity); equality holds here if the two experiments are independent (additivity).

In this paper it is shown that linear combinations of the Shannon and Hartley entropies and only these have the above properties. The Shannon and the Hartley entropies are also individually characterized.

Keywords

ENTROPIESCHARACTERIZATION THEOREMSPROBABILITY DISTRIBUTIONSINDEPENDENCERECURSIVITYINFORMATION FUNCTIONSCONTINUOUSCONCAVEINEQUALITIESSUBADDITIVEADDITIVENUMBER THEORETICAL FUNCTIONS
Type
Research Article
Information
Advances in Applied Probability , Volume 6 , Issue 1 , March 1974 , pp. 131 - 146
Copyright
Copyright © Applied Probability Trust 1974 

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