We discuss some properties of the generalized entropies, called Rényi entropies, and their application to the case of continuous distributions. In particular, it is shown that these measures of complexity can be divergent; however, their differences are free from these divergences, thus enabling them to be good candidates for the description of the extension and the shape of continuous distributions. We apply this formalism to the projection of wave functions onto the coherent state basis, i.e., to the Husimi representation. We also show how the localization properties of the Husimi distribution on average can be reconstructed from its marginal distributions that are calculated in position and momentum space in the case when the phase space has no structure, i.e., no classical limit can be defined. Numerical simulations on a one-dimensional disordered system corroborate our expectations.
We study an information-theoretic measure of uncertainty for quantum systems. It is the Shannon information I of the phase-space probability distribution 〈z\ensuremath{\Vert}\ensuremath{\rho}\ensuremath{\Vert}z〉, where \ensuremath{\Vert}z〉 are coherent states and \ensuremath{\rho} is the density matrix. As shown by Lieb I\ensuremath{\ge}1, and this bound represents a strengthened version of the uncertainty principle. For a harmonic oscillator in a thermal state, I coincides with von Neumann entropy, -Tr(\ensuremath{\rho}ln\ensuremath{\rho}), in the high-temperature regime, but unlike entropy, it is nonzero (and equal to the Lieb bound) at zero temperature. It therefore supplies a nontrivial measure of uncertainty due to both quantum and thermal fluctuations. We study I as a function of time for a class of nonequilibrium quantum systems consisting of a distinguished system coupled to a heat bath. We derive an evolution equation for I. For the harmonic oscillator, in the Fokker-Planck regime, we show that I increases monotonically, if the width of the coherent states is chosen to be the same as the width of the harmonic oscillator ground state. For other choices of the width, and for more general Hamiltonians, I settles down to a monotonic increase in the long run, but may suffer an initial decrease for certain initial states that undergo ``reassembly'' (the opposite of quantum spreading). Our main result is to prove, for linear systems, that I at each moment of time has a lower bound
Itmin, over all possible initial states.This bound is a generalization of the uncertainty principle to include thermal fluctuations in nonequilibrium systems, and represents the least amount of uncertainty the system must suffer after evolution in the presence of an environment for time t.
Itmin is an envelope, equal for each time t, to the time evolution of I for a certain initial state, which we calculate to be a nonminimal Gaussian.
Itmin coincides with the Lieb bound in the absence of an environment, and is related to von Neumann entropy in the long-time limit. The form of
Itmin indicates that the thermal fluctuations become comparable with the quantum fluctuations on a time scale equal to the decoherence time scale, in agreement with earlier work of Hu and Zhang. Our results are also related to those of Zurek, Habib, and Paz, who looked for the set of initial states generating the least amount of von Neumann entropy after a fixed period of nonunitary evolution.
Characterizing complexity and criticality in quantum systems requires diagnostics that are both computationally tractable and physically insightful. We apply a measure of quantum state complexity for n-qubit systems, defined as the divergence between the Shannon or von Neumann entropy of the computational basis distribution and the second-order Renyi entropy. This quantity has already been used earlier termed as structural entropy and it is particularly powerful as the Renyi entropy is directly related to state purity, linear entropy, and the inverse participation ratio, providing a clear physical grounding. While other Renyi orders could be used, the second order offers a deep and established connection to these key physical quantities. We first validate the measure in canonical noise channels, showing it peaks at the boundary between quantum and classical regimes. We then demonstrate its power in many-body physics. For systems exhibiting a many-body localization transition - including deformed random matrix ensembles and a disordered Heisenberg spin chain - the complexity measure reliably signals the crossover from integrable/localized to quantum-chaotic/ergodic phases. Crucially, the maximum complexity occurs in the non-ergodic yet extended states at the transition, precisely capturing the critical region where the system is neither fully localized nor thermalized. Furthermore, within the chaotic phase, the measure correlates with the survival probability of local excitations, revealing a spectrum of thermalization properties. Our results establish that the entropic complexity is a simple, versatile, and effective probe for identifying nontrivial quantum regimes and transitions giving a new and alternative insight into such systems.
We focus attention upon the thermal statistics of the classical analogs of quasi-probabilities (QP) in phase space for the important case of quadratic Hamiltonians. We consider the three more important OPs: Wigner’s, P -, and Husimi’s. We show that, for all of them, the ensuing semiclassical entropy is a function only of the fluctuation product ΔxΔp . We ascertain that the semiclassical analog of P -distribution seems to become unphysical at very low temperatures. The behavior of several other information quantifiers reconfirms such an assertion in manifold ways. We also examine the behavior of the statistical complexity and of thermal quantities like the specific heat.
Abstract Entropy has played an essential role in the history of physics. Its mathematical definition and applications have changed over time till today. In this paper, we first review the historical evolution of these various points of view, from the thermodynamic definition to information entropy from Shannon in classical physics, up to the modern concept of Neumann’s quantum entropy. As a specific example, we consider entanglement entropy and compare the phase space approach in classical physics to the Hilbert space approach in quantum physics in simple model systems. We derive a general expression for the entanglement entropy of fermions and bosons in arbitrary partitions of Hilbert space, valid beyond the thermodynamic limit. Next, we compare thermodynamic heat engines with quantum heat engines. Finally, we proceed to the more general concept of quantum (computational) complexity and argue, using the concept of entanglement entropy, that the Heisenberg time in classically chaotic systems coincides with the time when maximal complexity is reached in the quantum case for systems with all–all interactions.
Phase-space versions of quantum mechanics -- from Wigner's original distribution to modern discrete-qudit constructions -- represent some states with negative quasi-probabilities. Conventional Shannon and Rényi entropies become complex-valued in this setting and lose their operational meaning. Building on the axiomatic treatments of Rényi (1961) and Daróczy (1963), we develop a conservative extension that applies to signed finite phase spaces and identify a single admissible entropy family, which we call signed Rényi
α-entropy (for a free parameter
α≥0). The obvious signed Shannon candidate is ruled out because it violates extensivity. We prove four results that bolster the usefulness of the new measure. (i) It serves as a witness of the presence of cancellation, detecting the coexistence of positive and negative weight in a signed measure. (ii) For
α>1, it is Schur-concave, delivering the intuitive property that mixing increases entropy (iii) The same parametric family obeys a quantum H-theorem, namely, that under de-phasing dynamics entropy cannot decrease. (iv) The
2-entropy is conserved under discrete Moyal-bracket dynamics, mirroring conservation of von Neumann entropy under unitary evolution on Hilbert space. We also comment on interpreting the Rényi order parameter as an inverse temperature. Overall, we believe that our investigation provides good evidence that our axiomatically derived signed Rényi entropy may be a useful addition to existing entropy measures employed in quantum information, foundations, and thermodynamics.