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Lecture

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In course

PHYS-338: Statistical physics

Ce cours introduit les principes fondamentaux de la physique statistique, l'une des théories les plus fondamentales de la physique moderne. ...

Instructor

Florent Gérard Krzakala

Official source

https://mediaspace.epfl.ch/media/0_1gcbwuis

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Related concepts (20)

Semi-log plot

In science and engineering, a semi-log plot/graph or semi-logarithmic plot/graph has one axis on a logarithmic scale, the other on a linear scale. It is useful for data with exponential relationships, where one variable covers a large range of values, or to zoom in and visualize that - what seems to be a straight line in the beginning - is in fact the slow start of a logarithmic curve that is about to spike and changes are much bigger than thought initially.

Log–log plot

In science and engineering, a log–log graph or log–log plot is a two-dimensional graph of numerical data that uses logarithmic scales on both the horizontal and vertical axes. Power functions – relationships of the form – appear as straight lines in a log–log graph, with the exponent corresponding to the slope, and the coefficient corresponding to the intercept. Thus these graphs are very useful for recognizing these relationships and estimating parameters. Any base can be used for the logarithm, though most commonly base 10 (common logs) are used.

Fluctuation theorem

The fluctuation theorem (FT), which originated from statistical mechanics, deals with the relative probability that the entropy of a system which is currently away from thermodynamic equilibrium (i.e., maximum entropy) will increase or decrease over a given amount of time. While the second law of thermodynamics predicts that the entropy of an isolated system should tend to increase until it reaches equilibrium, it became apparent after the discovery of statistical mechanics that the second law is only a statistical one, suggesting that there should always be some nonzero probability that the entropy of an isolated system might spontaneously decrease; the fluctuation theorem precisely quantifies this probability.

Log probability

In probability theory and computer science, a log probability is simply a logarithm of a probability. The use of log probabilities means representing probabilities on a logarithmic scale , instead of the standard unit interval. Since the probabilities of independent events multiply, and logarithms convert multiplication to addition, log probabilities of independent events add. Log probabilities are thus practical for computations, and have an intuitive interpretation in terms of information theory: the negative of the average log probability is the information entropy of an event.

Transaction log

In the field of databases in computer science, a transaction log (also transaction journal, database log, binary log or audit trail) is a history of actions executed by a database management system used to guarantee ACID properties over crashes or hardware failures. Physically, a log is a listing changes to the database, stored in a stable storage format. If, after a start, the database is found in an inconsistent state or not been shut down properly, the database management system reviews the database logs for uncommitted transactions and rolls back the changes made by these transactions.

Related concepts (20)