Shannon–Khinchin axioms

E7559

The Shannon–Khinchin axioms are a set of fundamental conditions that uniquely characterize Shannon entropy as the standard measure of information and uncertainty in probability theory and information theory.


Statements (46)

Predicate Object
instanceOf axiomatic system
information theory concept
appliesTo discrete probability distributions
characterizes Boltzmann–Gibbs entropy in statistical mechanics
Shannon entropy
contrastWith generalized entropy axioms
defines properties of an entropy function
field information theory
probability theory
hasAxiom Shannon entropy
surface form: Shannon additivity axiom

additivity axiom
continuity axiom
continuity in probabilities
expansibility axiom
expansibility with zero-probability events
maximal entropy for the uniform distribution
maximality axiom
recursivity axiom
recursivity for compound experiments
symmetry axiom
hasConsequence additivity for independent systems
logarithmic form of entropy
uniqueness of Shannon entropy as information measure
implies adding an event with probability zero does not change entropy
entropy is Schur-concave
entropy is continuous in its arguments
entropy is maximal for the uniform distribution
entropy is nonnegative
entropy is symmetric in its arguments
entropy is uniquely determined up to a positive multiplicative constant
entropy of a compound experiment is sum of entropies plus conditional entropy
language mathematical formulation
namedAfter Aleksandr Khinchin
Claude Shannon
purpose to uniquely determine Shannon entropy up to a positive multiplicative constant
relatedTo Boltzmann–Gibbs entropy in statistical mechanics
surface form: Boltzmann entropy

Faddeev’s axioms
Khinchin’s characterization of entropy
Rényi entropy
Shannon entropy
Tsallis entropy
timePeriod mid 20th century
usedIn coding theory
foundations of information theory
information geometry
statistical mechanics

Referenced by (4)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

Faddeev’s axioms isAlternativeTo Shannon–Khinchin axioms
Faddeev’s axioms isEquivalentTo Shannon–Khinchin axioms
Faddeev’s axioms relatedTo Shannon–Khinchin axioms
Shannon entropy satisfies Shannon–Khinchin axioms