Edwin Thompson Jaynes (July 5, 1922 – April 30, 1998) was the Wayman Crow Distinguished Professor of Physics at

Washington University Washington University in St. Louis (WashU or WUSTL) is a private research university with its main campus in St. Louis County, and Clayton, Missouri. Founded in 1853, the university is named after George Washington. Washington University is r ...

in St. Louis. He wrote extensively on

statistical mechanics In physics, statistical mechanics is a mathematical framework that applies statistical methods and probability theory to large assemblies of microscopic entities. It does not assume or postulate any natural laws, but explains the macroscopic b ...

and on foundations of

probability Probability is the branch of mathematics concerning numerical descriptions of how likely an event is to occur, or how likely it is that a proposition is true. The probability of an event is a number between 0 and 1, where, roughly speaking, ...

and

statistical inference Statistical inference is the process of using data analysis to infer properties of an underlying distribution of probability.Upton, G., Cook, I. (2008) ''Oxford Dictionary of Statistics'', OUP. . Inferential statistical analysis infers properti ...

, initiating in 1957 the maximum entropy interpretation of thermodynamics as being a particular application of more general

Bayesian Thomas Bayes (/beɪz/; c. 1701 – 1761) was an English statistician, philosopher, and Presbyterian minister. Bayesian () refers either to a range of concepts and approaches that relate to statistical methods based on Bayes' theorem, or a followe ...

information theory Information theory is the scientific study of the quantification, storage, and communication of information. The field was originally established by the works of Harry Nyquist and Ralph Hartley, in the 1920s, and Claude Shannon in the 1940s. ...

techniques (although he argued this was already implicit in the works of

Josiah Willard Gibbs Josiah Willard Gibbs (; February 11, 1839 – April 28, 1903) was an American scientist who made significant theoretical contributions to physics, chemistry, and mathematics. His work on the applications of thermodynamics was instrumental in t ...

). Jaynes strongly promoted the interpretation of

probability theory Probability theory is the branch of mathematics concerned with probability. Although there are several different probability interpretations, probability theory treats the concept in a rigorous mathematical manner by expressing it through a set ...

as an extension of

logic Logic is the study of correct reasoning. It includes both formal and informal logic. Formal logic is the science of deductively valid inferences or of logical truths. It is a formal science investigating how conclusions follow from prem ...

. In 1963, together with Fred Cummings, he modeled the evolution of a two-level atom in an electromagnetic field, in a fully quantized way. This model is known as the

Jaynes–Cummings model The Jaynes–Cummings model (sometimes abbreviated JCM) is a theoretical model in quantum optics. It describes the system of a two-level atom interacting with a quantized mode of an optical cavity (or a bosonic field), with or without the prese ...

. A particular focus of his work was the construction of logical principles for assigning

prior probability In Bayesian statistical inference, a prior probability distribution, often simply called the prior, of an uncertain quantity is the probability distribution that would express one's beliefs about this quantity before some evidence is taken into ...

distributions; see the

principle of maximum entropy The principle of maximum entropy states that the probability distribution which best represents the current state of knowledge about a system is the one with largest entropy, in the context of precisely stated prior data (such as a proposition ...

, the principle of maximum caliber, the principle of transformation groups and

Laplace Pierre-Simon, marquis de Laplace (; ; 23 March 1749 – 5 March 1827) was a French scholar and polymath whose work was important to the development of engineering, mathematics, statistics, physics, astronomy, and philosophy. He summarized ...

principle of indifference The principle of indifference (also called principle of insufficient reason) is a rule for assigning epistemic probabilities. The principle of indifference states that in the absence of any relevant evidence, agents should distribute their cre ...

. Other contributions include the

mind projection fallacy The mind projection fallacy is an informal fallacy first described by physicist and Bayesian philosopher E. T. Jaynes. In a first, "positive" form, it occurs when someone thinks that the way they see the world reflects the way the world real ...

. Jaynes' book, ''Probability Theory: The Logic of Science'' (2003) gathers various threads of modern thinking about

Bayesian probability Bayesian probability is an interpretation of the concept of probability, in which, instead of frequency or propensity of some phenomenon, probability is interpreted as reasonable expectation representing a state of knowledge or as quantification ...

and

, develops the notion of probability theory as extended logic, and contrasts the advantages of Bayesian techniques with the results of other approaches. This book, which he dedicated to

Harold Jeffreys Sir Harold Jeffreys, FRS (22 April 1891 – 18 March 1989) was a British mathematician, statistician, geophysicist, and astronomer. His book, ''Theory of Probability'', which was first published in 1939, played an important role in the revival ...

, was published posthumously in 2003 (from an incomplete manuscript that was edited by Larry Bretthorst).

References

External links

* * Edwin Thompson Jaynes
''Probability Theory: The Logic of Science''.
Cambridge University Press, (2003). .

(fragmentary) of ''Probability Theory: The Logic of Science''. Book no longer downloadable for copyright reasons. * A comprehensiv
web page
on E. T. Jaynes's life and work.
ET Jaynes' obituary at Washington university

http://bayes.wustl.edu/etj/articles/entropy.concentration.pdf
Jaynes' analysis of Rudolph Wolf's dice data {{DEFAULTSORT:Jaynes, Edwin Thompson 1922 births 1998 deaths American agnostics 20th-century American physicists American statisticians Washington University in St. Louis faculty Washington University in St. Louis mathematicians Washington University physicists Physicists from Missouri Mathematicians from Missouri Scientists from Missouri 20th-century American mathematicians

See also

References

External links