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Mutual Information Disentangles Interactions from Changing Environments

Giorgio Nicoletti and Daniel Maria Busiello
Phys. Rev. Lett. 127, 228301 – Published 22 November 2021
Physics logo See Viewpoint: Distinguishing Noise Sources with Information Theory
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Abstract

Real-world systems are characterized by complex interactions of their internal degrees of freedom, while living in ever-changing environments whose net effect is to act as additional couplings. Here, we introduce a paradigmatic interacting model in a switching, but unobserved, environment. We show that the limiting properties of the mutual information of the system allow for a disentangling of these two sources of couplings. Further, our approach might stand as a general method to discriminate complex internal interactions from equally complex changing environments.

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  • Received 20 July 2021
  • Revised 14 September 2021
  • Accepted 22 September 2021

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.228301

© 2021 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Condensed Matter, Materials & Applied PhysicsStatistical Physics & ThermodynamicsInterdisciplinary PhysicsPhysics of Living SystemsGeneral Physics

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Distinguishing Noise Sources with Information Theory

Published 22 November 2021

Mutual information provides a promising method for disentangling intrinsic from extrinsic sources of noise in biological systems.

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Authors & Affiliations

Giorgio Nicoletti1,* and Daniel Maria Busiello2,†

  • 1Laboratory of Interdisciplinary Physics, Department of Physics and Astronomy “G. Galilei”, University of Padova, 35121 Padova, Italy
  • 2Institute of Physics, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne—EPFL, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland

  • *giorgio.nicoletti.1@phd.unipd.it
  • daniel.busiello@epfl.ch

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Issue

Vol. 127, Iss. 22 — 24 November 2021

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