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Entropy and diversity : the axiomatic approach / Tom Leinster, University of Edinburgh.
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Leinster, Tom, 1971- author.
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Categories (Mathematics).
- Entropy (Information theory).
- Numbers of species--Mathematical models.
- Numbers of species.
- Biodiversity--Mathematical models.
- Biodiversity.
- Biodiversity--Measurement.
- Mathematical models.
- Physical Description:
- 1 online resource (xiv, 442 pages) : digital, PDF file(s)
- Place of Publication:
- Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2021.
- System Details:
- text file
- Summary:
- The global biodiversity crisis is one of humanity's most urgent problems, but even quantifying biological diversity is a difficult mathematical and conceptual challenge. This book brings new mathematical rigour to the ongoing debate. It was born of research in category theory, is given strength by information theory, and is fed by the ancient field of functional equations. It applies the power of the axiomatic method to a biological problem of pressing concern, but it also presents new theorems that stand up as mathematics in their own right, independently of any application. The question 'what is diversity?' has surprising mathematical depth, and this book covers a wide breadth of mathematics, from functional equations to geometric measure theory, from probability theory to number theory. Despite this range, the mathematical prerequisites are few: the main narrative thread of this book requires no more than an undergraduate course in analysis.
- Notes:
- Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 27 Apr 2021).
- Other Format:
- Print version:
- ISBN:
- 9781108963558
- Access Restriction:
- Restricted for use by site license.
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