Rényi Cross-Entropy Measures for Common Distributions and Processes with Memory

Entropy (Basel). 2022 Oct 4;24(10):1417. doi: 10.3390/e24101417.

Abstract

Two Rényi-type generalizations of the Shannon cross-entropy, the Rényi cross-entropy and the Natural Rényi cross-entropy, were recently used as loss functions for the improved design of deep learning generative adversarial networks. In this work, we derive the Rényi and Natural Rényi differential cross-entropy measures in closed form for a wide class of common continuous distributions belonging to the exponential family, and we tabulate the results for ease of reference. We also summarise the Rényi-type cross-entropy rates between stationary Gaussian processes and between finite-alphabet time-invariant Markov sources.

Keywords: Gaussian processes; Markov sources; Rényi information measures; cross-entropy; divergence measures; exponential family distributions.