Incremental entropy relation as an alternative to MaxEnt

Abstract

We show that, to generate the statistical operator appropriate for a given system, and as an alternative to Jaynes’ MaxEnt approach, that refers to the entropy S, one can use instead the increments ±S in S. To such an effect, one uses the macroscopic thermodynamic relation that links ±S to changes in i) the internal energy E and ii) the remaining M relevant extensive quantities Ai, i = 1; : : : ;M; that characterize the context one is working with.