Entropy of Hidden Markov Processes and Connections to Dynamical Systems (07w5103)

Objectives

Given the enormous amount of recent work, following a long hiatus,
the time seems ripe for a meeting on this subject. Given the large
number of areas that have recently contributed to the subject, a
five-day workshop at BIRS would be ideal. The overview above describes
the relevance and importance of the workshop topics to information theory,
probability theory, dynamical systems and statistical mechanics.

We aim to bring together experts from the wide variety of subjects
that have contributed recent results. This includes people from
information theory (source, channel and constrained coding),
dynamical systems (iterated function systems and Lyapunov
exponents), probability theory (random matrix products), and
statistical mechanics.

In addition to experts, we expect to invite several graduate students and postdoctoral fellows (probably 25% of the participants). Currently, all of the organizers, and many of the expected participants, have students and postdocs working on problems in the area.

Our principal objectives are:

-- To introduce, via tutorials, techniques and gestalt from
each of the related areas to experts in other areas

-- To report recent results

-- To pose and discuss open problems

In terms of format, we envision four one-hour talks per day,
including tutorials on the contributing subjects, as well as
sessions on open problems.