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Uncertainty Relations and Fluctuation Theorems for Bayes Nets

David H. Wolpert

2020Physical Review Letters32 citationsDOIOpen Access PDF

Abstract

Recent research has considered the stochastic thermodynamics of multiple interacting systems, representing the overall system as a Bayes net. I derive fluctuation theorems governing the entropy production (EP) of arbitrary sets of the systems in such a Bayes net. I also derive "conditional" fluctuation theorems, governing the distribution of EP in one set of systems conditioned on the EP of a different set of systems. I then derive thermodynamic uncertainty relations relating the EP of the overall system to the precisions of probability currents within the individual systems.

Topics & Concepts

Bayes' theoremStatistical physicsEntropy productionEntropy (arrow of time)Applied mathematicsNet (polyhedron)MathematicsConditional probabilitySet (abstract data type)Conditional entropyProbability distributionComputer sciencePrinciple of maximum entropyThermodynamicsPhysicsBayesian probabilityStatisticsProgramming languageGeometryAdvanced Thermodynamics and Statistical MechanicsNeural dynamics and brain functionStatistical Mechanics and Entropy