Published September 1, 2005 | Version v1
Journal article

Measuring complexity with zippers

  • 1. Physics Department and INFM-SMC, La Sapienza University, Ple A Moro 2, 00185 Rome (Italy)
  • 2. Mathematics Department, La Sapienza University, Ple A Moro 2, 00185 Rome (Italy)

Description

Physics concepts have often been borrowed and independently developed by other fields of science. In this perspective, a significant example is that of the entropy in information theory. The aim of this paper is to provide a short and pedagogical introduction to the use of data compression techniques for the estimate of the entropy and other relevant quantities in information theory and algorithmic information theory. We consider in particular the LZ77 algorithm as a case study and discuss how a zipper can be used for information extraction

Availability note (English)

Available online at http://stacks.iop.org/0143-0807/26/S69/ejp5_5_s08.pdf or at the Web site for the journal European Journal of Physics (ISSN 1361-6404) http://www.iop.org/

Additional details

Publishing Information

Journal Title
European Journal of Physics
Journal Volume
26
Journal Issue
5
Journal Page Range
p. S69-S77
ISSN
0143-0807
CODEN
EJPHD4

INIS

Country of Publication
United Kingdom
Country of Input or Organization
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
INIS RN
36098999
Subject category
S71: CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSICS;
Descriptors DEI
ALGORITHMS; DATA PROCESSING; ENTROPY; INFORMATION; INFORMATION THEORY; MEASURE THEORY
Descriptors DEC
MATHEMATICAL LOGIC; MATHEMATICS; PHYSICAL PROPERTIES; PROCESSING; THERMODYNAMIC PROPERTIES