Rich information-theoretic structure in out-of-equilibrium thermodynamics exists in both the classical and quantum regimes, leading to the fruitful interplay among statistical physics, quantum information theory, and mathematical theories such as matrix analysis and asymptotic probability theory. The main purpose of this book is to clarify how information theory works behind thermodynamics and to shed modern light on it. The book focuses on both purely information-theoretic concepts and their physical implications. From the mathematical point of view, rigorous proofs of fundamental properties of entropies, divergences, and majorization are presented in a self-contained manner. From the physics perspective, modern formulations of thermodynamics are discussed, with a focus on stochastic thermodynamics and resource theory of thermodynamics. In particular, resource theory is a recently developed field as a branch of quantum information theory to quantify “useful resources” and has an intrinsic connection to various fundamental ideas of mathematics and information theory. This book serves as a concise introduction to important ingredients of the information-theoretic formulation of thermodynamics.

Over 130 years ago, James Clerk Maxwell introduced his hypothetical "demon" as a challenge to the scope of the second law of thermodynamics. Fascination with the demon persisted throughout the development of statistical and quantum physics, information theory, and computer science, and links have been established between Maxwell's demon and each of

This book explains what quantum states of light look like. Of special interest, a single photon state is explained by using a wave picture, showing that it corresponds to the complementarity of a quantum. Also explained is how light waves are created by photons, again corresponding to the complementarity of a quantum. The author shows how an optical wave is created by superposition of a "vacuum" and a single photon as a typical example. Moreover, squeezed states of light are explained as "longitudinal" waves of light and Schrödinger's cat states as macroscopic superposition states.

This thesis presents a general theory of nonequilibrium thermodynamics for information processing. Ever since Maxwell's demon was proposed in the nineteenth century, the relationship between thermodynamics and information has attracted much attention because it concerns the foundation of the second law of thermodynamics. From the modern point of view, Maxwell's demon is formulated as an information processing device that performs measurement and feedback at the level of thermal fluctuations. By unifying information theory, measurement theory, and the recently developed theory of nonequilibrium statistical mechanics, the author has constructed a theory of "information thermodynamics," in which information contents and thermodynamic variables are treated on an equal footing. In particular, the maximum work that can be extracted by the demon and the minimum work that is needed for measurement and information erasure by the demon has been determined. Additionally, generalizations of nonequilibrium relations such as a Jarzynski equality for classical stochastic systems in the presence of feedback control have been derived. One of the generalized equalities has recently been verified experimentally by using sub-micron colloidal particles. The results obtained serve as fundamental principles for information processing in small thermodynamic systems, and are applicable to nanomachines and nanodevices.

Information theory has proved to be effective for solving many computer vision and pattern recognition (CVPR) problems (such as image matching, clustering and segmentation, saliency detection, feature selection, optimal classifier design and many others). Nowadays, researchers are widely bringing information theory elements to the CVPR arena. Among these elements there are measures (entropy, mutual information...), principles (maximum entropy, minimax entropy...) and theories (rate distortion theory, method of types...). This book explores and introduces the latter elements through an incremental complexity approach at the same time where CVPR problems are formulated and the most representative algorithms are presented. Interesting connections between information theory principles when applied to different problems are highlighted, seeking a comprehensive research roadmap. The result is a novel tool both for CVPR and machine learning researchers, and contributes to a cross-fertilization of both areas.

Information Theory (IT) tools, widely used in many scientific fields such as engineering, physics, genetics, neuroscience, and many others, are also useful transversal tools in image processing. In this book, we present the basic concepts of IT and how they have been used in the image processing areas of registration, segmentation, video processing, and computational aesthetics. Some of the approaches presented, such as the application of mutual information to registration, are the state of the art in the field. All techniques presented in this book have been previously published in peer-reviewed conference proceedings or international journals. We have stressed here their common aspects, and presented them in an unified way, so to make clear to the reader which problems IT tools can help to solve, which specific tools to use, and how to apply them. The IT basics are presented so as to be self-contained in the book. The intended audiences are students and practitioners of image processing and related areas such as computer graphics and visualization. In addition, students and practitioners of IT will be interested in knowing about these applications.

This book is a collection of lecture notes from the Symposium on Quantum Computing, Thermodynamics, and Statistical Physics, held at Kinki University in March 2012. Quantum information theory has a deep connection with statistical physics and thermodynamics. This volume introduces some of the topics on interface among the mentioned fields. Subjects included in the lecture notes include quantum annealing method, nonequilibrium thermodynamics and spin glass theory, among others. These subjects were presented with much emphasis put in its relevance in quantum information theory. These lecture notes are prepared in a self-contained manner so that a reader with modest background may understand the subjects.