[Math] Subadditivity for Renyi entropies

it.information-theory

Do the Renyi entropies satisfy the standard subadditivity of Shannon entropy? That is,

\begin{equation}
H_\alpha(A,B) \leq H_\alpha(A) + H_\alpha(B) ?
\end{equation}

for $\alpha \ne 1$. If they do, for which $\alpha$?

Here $H_\alpha(X)$ is the standard Renyi $\alpha$-entropy of the random variable X,
\begin{equation}
H_\alpha(X)=\frac{1}{1-\alpha}\log\sum_i^n p_i^\alpha,
\end{equation}
and $H_\alpha(A,B)$ is the Renyi entropy of the joint probability distribuition of the random variables A and B.

Best Answer

No, the Renyi entropy is not subadditive. It also lacks several other "natural" properties of entropies.

See this paper on "Additive entropies of degree-$q$ and the Tsallis Entropy by B. H. Lavenda and J. Dunning-Davies for more details, references, and versions of entropy, which possess many desired Shannon-entropy-like properties, while generalizing it.

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