MaxEnt

The maximum entropy method, or MAXENT, is variational approach for computing probability distributions given a list of moment, or expected value, constraints.

Here are some links for background info. A good overview of applications: http://cmm.cit.nih.gov/maxent/letsgo.html On the idea of maximum entropy in general: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principle_of_maximum_entropy

Use this package to compute discrete maximum entropy distributions over a list of values and list of constraints.

Here is a the example from Probability the Logic of Science

  maxent ([1,2,3], [average 1.5])

Right [0.61, 0.26, 0.11]

The classic dice example

  maxent ([1,2,3,4,5,6], [average 4.5])

Right [.05, .07, 0.11, 0.16, 0.23, 0.34]

One can use different constraints besides the average value there.

As for why you want to maximize the entropy to find the probability constraint, I will say this for now. In the case of the average constraint it is a kin to choosing a integer partition with the most interger compositions. I doubt that makes any sense, but I will try to explain more with a blog post soon.

Documentation

type Constraint a = (ExpectationFunction a, a)

Constraint type. A function and the constant it equals.

Think of it as the pair (f, c) in the constraint

     Σ pₐ f(a, xₐ) = c

such that we are summing over all values and a is the index.

For example, for a variance constraint the f would be (\_ x -> x*x) and c would be the variance.

type ExpectationFunction a = Int -> a -> a

A function that takes an index and value and returns a value. See average and variance for examples.

constraint :: Floating a => ExpectationFunction a -> a -> Constraint a

average :: Floating a => a -> Constraint a

variance :: Floating a => a -> Constraint a

maxent

Arguments

:: (forall a. Floating a => ([a], [Constraint a]))

A pair of values that the distributions is over and the constraints

-> Either (Result, Statistics) [Double]

Either the a discription of what wrong or the probability distribution

The main entry point for computing discrete maximum entropy distributions.