Gibbs algorithm

English

Etymology

Named after Josiah Willard Gibbs, who introduced it in 1902.

Proper noun

the Gibbs algorithm

1. (statistical mechanics) A criterion for choosing a probability distribution for the statistical ensemble of microstates of a thermodynamic system by minimizing the average log probability $\langle \ln p_{i}\rangle =\sum _{i}p_{i}\ln p_{i}\,$, subject to the probability distribution p_i satisfying a set of constraints (usually expectation values) corresponding to the known macroscopic quantities.