Statistical mechanics provides the framework for deriving macroscopic thermodynamic properties from the microscopic characteristics of matter. Central to this discipline is the concept of entropy, ...

The statistical entropy of the multivariate distribution that arises in sampling from an ecological community is distinct from, but related to, the entropy arising from the diversity between species.

In the context of Boltzmann-Gibbs statistical mechanics, this entropy is extensive, i.e., it grows proportionally to the size of the system. However, at critical points and phase transitions, this ...

This is why statistical thermodynamics and Claude Shannon’s information theory are essentially the same theory: Shannon’s entropy, called information entropy, is a measure of how many states a system ...

Entropy is surely one of the most intriguing and misunderstood concepts in all of physics. The entropy of the universe must always increase – so says the second law of thermodynamics. It’s a law that ...

Entropy is one of the most useful concepts in science but also one of the most confusing. This article serves as a brief introduction to the various types of entropy that can be used to quantify the ...