General properties of entropy

Alfred Wehrl
Rev. Mod. Phys. 50, 221 – Published 1 April 1978
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Abstract

It is rather paradoxical that, although entropy is one of the most important quantities in physics, its main properties are rarely listed in the usual textbooks on statistical mechanics. In this paper we try to fill this gap by discussing these properties, as, for instance, invariance, additivity, concavity, subadditivity, strong subadditivity, continuity, etc., in detail, with reference to their implications in statistical mechanics. In addition, we consider related concepts such as relative entropy, skew entropy, dynamical entropy, etc. Taking into account that statistical mechanics deals with large, essentially infinite systems, we finally will get a glimpse of systems with infinitely many degrees of freedom.

    DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/RevModPhys.50.221

    ©1978 American Physical Society

    Authors & Affiliations

    Alfred Wehrl*

    • Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

    • *Work supported in part by "Fonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung in Österreich," Projekt Nr. 3016.

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    Issue

    Vol. 50, Iss. 2 — April - June 1978

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