Statistical Physics and Information Theory

This is a set of lecture notes for a graduate course, which focuses on the relations between Information Theory and Statistical Physics. The course is aimed at EE graduate students in the area of Communications and Information Theory, as well as to graduate students in Physics who have basic background in Information Theory. Strong emphasis is given to the analogy and parallelism between Information Theory and Statistical Physics, as well as to the insights, the analysis tools and techniques that can be borrowed from Statistical Physics and ‘imported’ to certain problem areas in Information Theory. This is a research trend that has been very active in the last few decades, and the hope is that by exposing the student to the meeting points between these two disciplines, we will enhance his/her background and perspective to carry out research in the field.