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There are several different definitions of relative entropy, and some of them are not equivalent. Following is the definition we will use in this question.

Let $M$ be a closed manifold and $\mathcal{P}$ the set of Borel probability measures on $M$. Given a reference measure $\omega\in \mathcal{P}$ (usually the normalized Lebsgue measure), the relative entropy of a measure $\mu\ll\omega$ is defined as:

$$E(\mu|\omega)=\int_M\log\phi_\mu \ d\mu,$$

where $\displaystyle \phi_\mu=\frac{d\mu}{d\omega}$ is the Radon-Nykodim derivative (since we assume $\mu\ll\omega$). The integration is well defined since $\mu(\lbrace\phi_\mu=0\rbrace)=0$. For example $E(\mu|\omega)\ge0$ since

\begin{align*} E(\mu|\omega)&=\int\log\phi_\mu d\mu=\int_{\phi_\mu>0}-\log\frac{d\omega}{d\mu} d\mu \\\&\ge-\log\int_{\phi_\mu>0}\frac{d\omega}{d\mu} d\mu =-\log\omega(\lbrace\phi_\mu=0\rbrace)\ge0. \end{align*}

In particular $E(\mu|\omega)=0$ implies $\mu=\omega$.

Moreover, this function is convex: for all $\mu,\nu\ll\omega$, $$E(p\mu+q\nu|\omega)\le p\cdot E(\mu|\omega)+q\cdot E(\nu|\omega).$$

As noticed by Pablo (thank you!), the above claim is indeed a direct corollary of the convexity of $h(x)=x\log x$.


A more interesting statement I want to know if that, if $\mu_n\ll\omega$ such that $\mu_n\to\mu\not$$\ll\omega$, will we always have $E(\mu_n|\omega)\to+\infty$? Thank you!

Here $\mu_n\to\mu$ in the sense that $\mu_n(f)\to\mu(f)$ for all continuous functions $f$.


The paper given by Ashok below provides an equivalent definition: $\displaystyle E(\mu|\omega)=\sup_{\alpha}\sum_{A\in\alpha}\mu(A)\log\frac{\mu(A)}{\omega(A)}$, where the supremum is taken over all finite, Borel partitions $\alpha$ with $\omega(A)>0$.

In particular if $\mu\not$$\ll\omega$, we can take open sets $A_k$ with $\mu(A_k)\ge2\delta$ and $\omega(A_k)\to 0$. So $E(\mu|\omega)=+\infty$.

Now let's make a better choice of $A_k$'s such that $\mu(\partial A_k)=0$. Then if $\mu_n\to\mu$, $\mu_n(A_k)\to\mu(A_k)$ for all $k$. Hence we can pick $n_k$ such that $\mu_{n}(A_k)\ge\delta$ for all $n\ge n_k$. So for all $n\ge n_k$, we have $$E(\mu_{n}|\omega)\ge\mu_{n}(A_k)\log\frac{\mu_{n}(A_k)}{\omega(A_k)} \ge\delta\cdot\log\frac{\delta}{\omega(A_k)}\to\infty.$$

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    $\begingroup$ Isn't this just the convexity of the (negative) entropy function $h(x)=x\log x$? If $\mu,\nu$ have densities $f,g$ (w.r.t. $\omega$), then $E(\mu|\omega)=\int \log f(x) f(x)d\omega(x)=\int h(f(x))d\omega(x)$ and likewise $E(\nu|\omega)=\int h(g(x))d\omega(x)$ and $E(p\mu+q\nu|\omega)=\int h(p f(x)+q g(x)) d\omega(x)$, so that the convexity should follow from the convexity of $h$ (I'm assuming that $p+q=1$). $\endgroup$ Apr 1, 2013 at 20:51
  • $\begingroup$ Yes it really is! I will revise the question and ask for the another property. $\endgroup$
    – Pengfei
    Apr 2, 2013 at 3:21
  • $\begingroup$ Your second assertion is also true from the lower semicontinuity of $E(\mu|\omega)$ in $\mu$. $\endgroup$
    – Ashok
    Apr 2, 2013 at 4:17
  • $\begingroup$ @ashok Could you say more about this? I don't know how to use the condition $\mu\not$$\ll\omega$. $\endgroup$
    – Pengfei
    Apr 2, 2013 at 6:03
  • $\begingroup$ The second assertion is not true, one can get in the limit some odd measures such as $c\cdot omega$ plus some delta measures say (think about putting some gaussians on your space multiplied by the usual Lebesgue measure), and the Radon-Nykodim derivative (which is defined by the Lebesgue decomposition in this case) will be equal to $c$ a.e.. If by any case you are assuming that $\mu,\omega$ are ergodic, then it is true, by the fact that they are different extreme points. @Ashok, usually the entropy is not contiuous wrt weak-* convergence, except for Yomdin or Newhouse theorems. $\endgroup$
    – Asaf
    Apr 2, 2013 at 6:08

2 Answers 2

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If $M$ is complete and separable, then $E(\mu|\omega)$ is lower semicontinuous in $\mu$ on the set of all probability measures on $M$ with respect to the weak convergence of probability measures, see Theorem 1 in section III of this paper.

Once we have lower semicontinuity, we have $$ \liminf_{n\to \infty}E(\mu_n|\omega)\ge E(\mu|\omega) $$

Since $\mu$ is not absolutely continuous with respect to $\omega$, we have $E(\mu|\omega)=\infty$, hence the left hand side is also $\infty$.

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  • $\begingroup$ The definition given there is easier to use. And the proof of lower semi-continuity is straightforward. Thank you! $\endgroup$
    – Pengfei
    Apr 2, 2013 at 16:25
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Here it is another proof: it works when $\mu$ and $\omega$ are finite measures.

It is straightforward to see that $$ E(\mu | \omega ) - \mu (M) = \sup \left\{ \int_M f d \mu - \int_M e^{f} d \omega : f \in L^{\infty} ( \omega + \mu ) \right\}. $$

This is rather easy to prove: it relies on the fact that for $a \geq0$, we have $at-e^t \leq a \log (a) - a$ and the maximum is obtained when $t=log(a)$. Moreover, by a density argument we can prove that

$$ E(\mu | \omega ) - \mu (M) = \sup \left\{ \int_M f d \mu - \int_M e^{f} d \omega : f \in C_b(M) \right\}. $$

Since the right hand side is the supremum of continuous functions in both $\mu$ and $\omega$ we can deduce that if $\mu_n \rightharpoonup \mu$ and $\omega_n \rightharpoonup \omega$ then $$ \liminf_n E(\mu_n | \omega_n) \geq E(\mu | \omega),$$ that is, the relative entropy is jointly semicontinuous. Moreover we expressed the entropy as a supremum of linear functions in $(\mu, \omega)$ and so we have that it is convex in the couple $(\mu, \omega)$, that is $$E(t\mu + (1-t)\mu' | t\omega + (1-t)\omega' ) \leq tE(\mu|\omega) + (1-t) E(\mu'|\omega');$$ In particular it is convex in the first variable

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