Editing Edwin Thompson Jaynes

{{short description|American academic (1922–1998)}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name              = E. T. Jaynes
| image             = ETJaynes1.jpg
| image_size        = 200px
| caption           = Edwin Thompson Jaynes, {{circa}} 1960.
| birth_date        = {{Birth date|1922|7|5}}
| birth_place       = [[Waterloo, Iowa]]
| death_date        = {{Death date and age|mf=yes|1998|4|30|1922|7|5}}
| death_place       = [[St. Louis, Missouri]]
| residence         = 
| citizenship       = 
| nationality       = 
| ethnicity         = 
| field             = [[Physicist]]
| work_institutions = [[Washington University in St. Louis]]
| alma_mater        = 
| education         = [[Cornell College]]<br>[[Princeton University]]
| doctoral_advisor  = [[Eugene Wigner]]
| thesis_title      = An electronic theory of ferroelectricity
| thesis_year       = 1948
| doctoral_students = [[Fred Cummings]]<br>[[Joseph H. Eberly]]<br>[[Douglas James Scalapino]]
| known_for         = [[Maximum entropy thermodynamics]]<br>[[Bayesian probability|Bayesian theory]]<br>[[Jaynes–Cummings model]]
| author_abbrev_bot = 
| author_abbrev_zoo = 
| influences        = 
| influenced        = 
| prizes            = 
| footnotes         = 
| signature         = 
}}
[[Image:ETJaynes2.jpg|right|thumb|Jaynes around 1982]]
'''Edwin Thompson Jaynes''' (July 5, 1922 – April 30,<ref>{{cite journal |author1=Clark J.W. |author2=Norberg R.E. |author3=Bretthorst G.L. |title=Edwin Thompson Jaynes |journal=[[Physics Today]] |volume=53 |pages=71 |date=January 2000 |issue=1 |doi=10.1063/1.882948 |url=http://library.wustl.edu/units/spec/exhibits/crow/jaynesbio.html |bibcode=2000PhT....53a..71. |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070806181215/http://library.wustl.edu/units/spec/exhibits/crow/jaynesbio.html |archive-date=2007-08-06 }}</ref> 1998) was the Wayman Crow Distinguished Professor of Physics at [[Washington University in St. Louis]]. He wrote extensively on [[statistical mechanics]] and on foundations of [[probability]] and [[statistical inference]], initiating in 1957 the [[maximum entropy thermodynamics|maximum entropy interpretation of thermodynamics]]<ref>{{cite journal |author=Jaynes, E.T. |title=Information theory and statistical mechanics |journal=Physical Review |volume=106 |issue=4 |pages=620–630 |year=1957 |doi=10.1103/PhysRev.106.620 |url=http://bayes.wustl.edu/etj/articles/theory.1.pdf |bibcode=1957PhRv..106..620J|s2cid=17870175 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |author=Jaynes, E.T. |author-mask=1 |title=Information theory and statistical mechanics II |journal=Physical Review |volume=108 |issue=2 |pages=171–190 |year=1957 |doi=10.1103/PhysRev.108.171 |url=http://bayes.wustl.edu/etj/articles/theory.2.pdf |bibcode=1957PhRv..108..171J}}</ref> as being a particular application of more general [[Bayesian inference|Bayesian]]/[[information theory]] techniques (although he argued this was already implicit in the works of [[Josiah Willard Gibbs]]). Jaynes strongly promoted the interpretation of [[probability theory]] as an extension of [[logic]].

In 1963, together with his doctoral student [[Fred Cummings]], he [[Scientific modelling|modeled]] the evolution of a [[Two-level system|two-level atom]] in an electromagnetic field, in a fully quantized way.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Cummings |first=Frederick W |date=2013-11-01 |title=Reminiscing about thesis work with E T Jaynes at Stanford in the 1950s |url=https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0953-4075/46/22/220202 |journal=Journal of Physics B: Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics |volume=46 |issue=22 |pages=220202 |doi=10.1088/0953-4075/46/22/220202 |issn=0953-4075}}</ref> This model is known as the [[Jaynes–Cummings model]].

A particular focus of his work was the construction of logical principles for assigning [[prior probability]] distributions; see the [[principle of maximum entropy]], the [[principle of maximum caliber]], the [[principle of transformation groups]]<ref>{{cite journal |author=Jaynes, E.T. |author-mask=1 |title=Prior Probabilities |journal=IEEE Transactions on Systems Science and Cybernetics |volume=4  |issue=3 |pages=227–241 |date=September 1968 |doi=10.1109/TSSC.1968.300117 |url=http://bayes.wustl.edu/etj/articles/prior.pdf }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |author=Jaynes, E.T. |author-mask=1 |title=The Well-Posed Problem |journal=Found. Phys. |volume=3 |issue=4 |pages=477–492 |date=December 1973 |doi=10.1007/BF00709116 |url=http://bayes.wustl.edu/etj/articles/well.pdf |bibcode=1973FoPh....3..477J|s2cid=2380040 }}</ref> and [[Pierre-Simon Laplace|Laplace]]'s [[principle of indifference]]. Other contributions include the [[mind projection fallacy]].

Jaynes' book, ''Probability Theory: The Logic of Science'' (2003) gathers various threads of modern thinking about [[Bayesian probability]] and [[statistical inference]], develops the notion of [[probability theory as extended logic]], and contrasts the advantages of Bayesian techniques with the results of other approaches. This book, which he dedicated to [[Harold Jeffreys]], was published posthumously in 2003 (from an incomplete manuscript that was edited by [[Larry Bretthorst]]).

Other of his doctoral students included [[Joseph H. Eberly]] and [[Douglas James Scalapino]].<ref name=":0" />

==See also==
*[[Differential entropy]]
*[[Limiting density of discrete points]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{Wikiquote}}
* {{MathGenealogy|id=91282}}
* Edwin Thompson Jaynes. [http://www.cambridge.org/gb/academic/subjects/physics/theoretical-physics-and-mathematical-physics/probability-theory-logic-science ''Probability Theory: The Logic of Science''.] Cambridge University Press, (2003).  {{ISBN|0-521-59271-2}}.
* [http://omega.math.albany.edu:8008/JaynesBook.html Early (1994) version] (fragmentary) of ''Probability Theory: The Logic of Science''. Book no longer downloadable for copyright reasons.
* A comprehensive [http://bayes.wustl.edu web page] on E. T. Jaynes's life and work.
* [http://libguides.wustl.edu/c.php?g=338660&p=2280769 ET Jaynes' obituary at Washington University]
* [http://bayes.wustl.edu/etj/articles/entropy.concentration.pdf http://bayes.wustl.edu/etj/articles/entropy.concentration.pdf] Jaynes' analysis of [[Rudolph Wolf]]'s dice data

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jaynes, Edwin Thompson}}
[[Category:1922 births]]
[[Category:1998 deaths]]
[[Category:American agnostics]]
[[Category:20th-century American physicists]]
[[Category:American statisticians]]
[[Category:Washington University in St. Louis mathematicians]]
[[Category:Washington University in St. Louis physicists]]
[[Category:Scientists from Missouri]]
[[Category:20th-century American mathematicians]]
[[Category:Statistical physicists]]
[[Category:Information theorists]]
[[Category:American probability theorists]]
[[Category:Cornell College alumni]]
[[Category:Bayesian statisticians]]
[[Category:Philosophers of probability]]