Useful Dual Functional of Entropic Information Measures

Abstract

There are entropic functionals galore, but not simple objective measures to distinguish between them. We remedy this situation here by appeal to Born’s proposal, of almost a hundred years ago, that the square modulus of any wave function | ψ | 2 be regarded as a probability distribution P. the usefulness of using information measures like Shannon’s in this pure-state context has been highlighted in [Phys. Lett. A1993, 181, 446]. Here we will apply the notion with the purpose of generating a dual functional [ F α R : { S Q } ⟶ R + ], which maps entropic functionals onto positive real numbers. In such an endeavor, we use as standard ingredients the coherent states of the harmonic oscillator (CHO), which are unique in the sense of possessing minimum uncertainty. This use is greatly facilitated by the fact that the CHO can be given analytic, compact closed form as shown in [Rev. Mex. Fis. E 2019, 65, 191]. Rewarding insights are to be obtained regarding the comparison between several standard entropic measures.