Abstract

The aim of this book is to show that information is at the root of all fields of science. These fields may be generated by use of the concept of ''extreme physical information,'' or EPI. The physical information is defined to be the loss of Fisher information that is incurred in observing any scientific phenomenon. The act of observation randomly perturbs the phenomenon, and sets off a physical process that may be modelled as a mathematical game between the observer and a ''demon'' characterizing the phenomenon. The currency of the game is Fisher information. The output of the game is the distribution law characterizing the statistics of the effect and, in particular, the acquired data. Thus, in a sense, the act of measurement creates the very law that governs the measurement. It is self-realized. This second edition of Physics from Fisher Information has been rewritten throughout in addition to including much new material. B. ROY FRIEDEN is a Professor Emeritus of Optical Sciences at the University of Arizona. He has held visiting professorship posts at Kitt Peak National Observatory, the Microwave Research Institute in Florence, Italy, and the University of Groningen, the Netherlands. He is known in optics for having founded the field of laser beam shaping; he also invented an optical pupil that asymptotically achieves diffraction-free imaging, invented the three-dimensional optical transfer function and founded the field of maximum entropy image processing. During the past 15 years he has been working on a unification of science through the use of Fisher information. This book is the fruits of this labor. Email address: roy.frieden@optics.arizona.edu. Th is publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. Information regarding prices, travel timetables, and other factual information given in this work is correct at the time of fi rst printing but Cambridge University Press does not guarantee the accuracy of such information thereafter. First published as Physics from Fisher Information 1998 Reprinted 1999 (twice), Th is edition fi rst published 2004 A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data