Advisory Committee Chair
Murat M Tanik
Advisory Committee Members
Buren E Wells
Hassan Moore
Lee G Moradi
Murat N Tanju
Document Type
Dissertation
Date of Award
2016
Degree Name by School
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) School of Engineering
Abstract
The Least Action Principle (LAP) is widely applied to search for solutions to problems of classical mechanics. It claims that if an infinitesimal change does not affect the action of a system, that action would be the least action. In classical mechanics, if a particle moves from point A to point B, it will search for the path that requires the least energy consumption. Modeling physical phenomena utilizing LAP helps to predict an equation of motion and this principle is applicable for all known systems. In this dissertation, we use the maximum independent set from graph theory as a guiding principle to model for least action. It is shown that the maximum independence number will correspond to the least action. We demonstrate the use of the LAP in information theory and its use in the modeling and the analysis of systems. Thus, we will have a general model which is applicable to any known system. We have applied the LAP model to the Conant network decomposition technique. We demonstrated the applicability of our model in our case study that the Conant network decomposition technique computes the least action of the given network of the given data set.
Recommended Citation
Guldal, Serkan, "Modeling and Analysis of Systems using the Least Action Principle in Information Theory" (2016). All ETDs from UAB. 1807.
https://digitalcommons.library.uab.edu/etd-collection/1807