Information-theoretic structure for the Tsallis q-entropy in statistical physics

Abstract

In this work, we derive information-theoretic properties for a modified Tsallis entropy, hereinafter referred to as q-entropy. We introduce the notions of joint q-entropy, conditional q-entropy, relative q-entropy, conditional mutual q-information, and establish several inequalities analogous to those of classical information theory. Within the context of Markov chains, these results are employed to prove a version of the second law of thermodynamics. Furthermore, we investigate the maximum entropy method in this setting. Finally, we prove a Tsallis version of the Shannon-McMillan-Breiman theorem and discuss the implications of these results in nonextensive statistical physics.