Information Content and Entropy of Finite Patterns from a Combinatorial Perspective

Abstract

A unified combinatorial definition of the information content and entropy of different types of patterns, compatible with the traditional concepts of information and entropy, going beyond the limitations of Shannon information interpretable for ergodic Markov processes. We compare the information content of various finite patterns and derive general properties of information quantity from these comparisons. Using these properties, we define normalized information estimation methods based on compression algorithms and Kolmogorov complexity. From a combinatorial point of view, we redefine the concept of entropy in a way that is asymptotically compatible with traditional entropy.