A Non-Negative Measure of Information for Continuous Probability Distributions

In this work, we investigate the possibility of using varentropy, an information measure previously proposed for discrete probability distribution, as a measure of the probabilistic uncertainty of continuous probability distribution. We show that varentropy allows avoiding negative values and some undesirable features of informational entropy encountered while using the Boltzmann–Shannon formula (and others) for continuous probability distributions.

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Journal
Mathematics
Published
2026-06-30
DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/math14132311
Primary Topic
Statistical Mechanics and Entropy
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
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article

A Non-Negative Measure of Information for Continuous Probability Distributions

Qiuping Alexandre Wang, Ru Julie Wang, M. L'Hernault, Jeremy Cocks et al.
Mathematics
Statistical Mechanics and Entropy
article

A Non-Negative Measure of Information for Continuous Probability Distributions

Qiuping Alexandre Wang, Ru Julie Wang, M. L'Hernault, Jeremy Cocks, François Xavier Machu, Aziz El Kaabouchi, Yueqing Zhu
article en

Abstract

In this work, we investigate the possibility of using varentropy, an information measure previously proposed for discrete probability distribution, as a measure of the probabilistic uncertainty of continuous probability distribution. We show that varentropy allows avoiding negative values and some undesirable features of informational entropy encountered while using the Boltzmann–Shannon formula (and others) for continuous probability distributions.

MathematicsVol. 14(13)
ESIEA University (FR), Laval Mayenne Technopole (FR), Wuhan Textile University (CN), Hôpital Paule de Viguier (FR)
Reduced inequalities
Openalex Percentile: Top 8%
Statistical Mechanics and Entropy
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