UBC Ergodic Theory Seminar: Chengyu Wu

The method of cutting and stacking has long been used in ergodic theory. As a useful tool for constructing stationary and ergodic processes with desired properties, this method should also be powerful in solving information theoretic problems. In 1991, Paul Shields introduced this method to information theory and constructed several examples of interest to information theorists. In this talk, I will start with a brief introduction to the cutting and stacking method, followed by an application to the divergence rate problem considered by Shields. After that, I will discuss how we apply this method to disprove the conjecture that the α-th order R ́enyi entropy rate of a stationary ergodic process always converges to its Shannon entropy rate as α goes to 1.