nLab
information metric

Contents

Idea

In information geometry, a (Fisher-)information metric is a Riemannian metric on a manifold of probability distributions over some probability space X (the latter often assumed to be finite).

Definition

On a finite probability space X Set a positive measure is a function ρ:X + and a probability distribution is one such that xXρ(x)=1.

This space is actually a submanifold of 0 X. For {x i} the canonical basis of tangent vectors on this wedge of Cartesian space, the information metric g is given by

g(x i,x j)(ρ)=1ρ(x i)δ ij.g(\frac{\partial}{\partial x^i}, \frac{\partial }{\partial x^j})(\rho) = \frac{1}{\rho(x^i)} \delta_{i j} \,.

References

  • L. L. Campbell, An extended Čencov characterization of the information metric Journal: Proc. Amer. Math. Soc. 98 (1986), 135-141. (AMS)

Created on June 17, 2011 17:48:10 by Urs Schreiber (89.204.137.105)