2012/04/11 by A. Hernando, A. Plastino · 1 citation
Computer Science · Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Chaos, Complexity, and Education #Complex Systems and Dynamics #Statistical Mechanics and Entropy #cs.SI #physics.soc-ph #stat.AP
paper · pdf · doi:10.1140/epjb/e2012-30313-x
arxiv created 2012/04/11 · openalex publication_date 2012/08/01 · arxiv updated 2015/06/04 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
MaxEnt's variational principle, in conjunction with Shannon's logarithmic information measure, yields only exponential functional forms in straightforward fashion. In this communication we show how to overcome this limitation via the incorporation, into the variational process, of suitable dynamical information. As a consequence, we are able to formulate a somewhat generalized Shannonian Maximum Entropy approach which provides a unifying "thermodynamic-like" explanation for the scale-invariant phenomena observed in social contexts, as city-population distributions. We confirm the MaxEnt predictions by means of numerical experiments with random walkers, and compare them with some empirical data.