Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-jr42d Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T18:18:54.049Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

1 - Hidden Markov processes in the context of symbolic dynamics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2011

Mike Boyle
Affiliation:
University of Maryland, College Park
Karl Petersen
Affiliation:
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Brian Marcus
Affiliation:
University of British Columbia, Vancouver
Karl Petersen
Affiliation:
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Tsachy Weissman
Affiliation:
Stanford University, California
Get access

Summary

Abstract. In an effort to aid communication among different fields and perhaps facilitate progress on problems common to all of them, this article discusses hidden Markov processes from several viewpoints, especially that of symbolic dynamics, where they are known as sofic measures or continuous shift-commuting images of Markov measures. It provides background, describes known tools and methods, surveys some of the literature, and proposes several open problems.

Introduction

Symbolic dynamics is the study of shift (and other) transformations on spaces of infinite sequences or arrays of symbols and maps between such systems. A symbolic dynamical system, with a shift-invariant measure, corresponds to a stationary stochastic process. In the setting of information theory, such a system amounts to a collection of messages. Markov measures and hidden Markov measures, also called sofic measures, on symbolic dynamical systems have the desirable property of being determined by a finite set of data. But not all of their properties, for example the entropy, can be determined by finite algorithms. This article surveys some of the known and unknown properties of hidden Markov measures that are of special interest from the viewpoint of symbolic dynamics. To keep the article self contained, necessary background and related concepts are reviewed briefly. More can be found in [47, 56, 55, 71].

We discuss methods and tools that have been useful in the study of symbolic systems, measures supported on them, and maps between them.

Type
Chapter
Information
Entropy of Hidden Markov Processes and Connections to Dynamical Systems
Papers from the Banff International Research Station Workshop
, pp. 5 - 71
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×