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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Pinkard, Henry, Waller, Laura
Format: Preprint
Published: 2022
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2206.07867
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author Pinkard, Henry
Waller, Laura
author_facet Pinkard, Henry
Waller, Laura
contents Information theory, though originally developed for communications engineering, provides mathematical tools with broad applications across science. These tools characterize the fundamental limits of data compression and transmission in the presence of noise. Here, we present a visual, intuition-driven guide to key concepts in information theory. We show how entropy, mutual information, and channel capacity follow from basic probability, and how they determine the shortest possible encoding of a data source and the maximum rate of reliable communication through a noisy channel. Our presentation assumes only a familiarity with basic probability theory.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2206_07867
institution arXiv
publishDate 2022
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle A visual introduction to information theory
Pinkard, Henry
Waller, Laura
Information Theory
Information theory, though originally developed for communications engineering, provides mathematical tools with broad applications across science. These tools characterize the fundamental limits of data compression and transmission in the presence of noise. Here, we present a visual, intuition-driven guide to key concepts in information theory. We show how entropy, mutual information, and channel capacity follow from basic probability, and how they determine the shortest possible encoding of a data source and the maximum rate of reliable communication through a noisy channel. Our presentation assumes only a familiarity with basic probability theory.
title A visual introduction to information theory
topic Information Theory
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2206.07867