Gibbs algorithm

== English == === Etymology === Named after Josiah Willard Gibbs, who introduced it in 1902. === Proper noun === the Gibbs algorithm (statistical mechanics) A criterion for choosing a probability distribution for the statistical ensemble of microstates of a thermodynamic system by minimizing the average log probability ⟨ ln ⁡ p i ⟩ = ∑ i p i ln ⁡ p i {\displaystyle \langle \ln p_{i}\rangle =\sum _{i}p_{i}\ln p_{i}\,} , subject to the probability distribution pi satisfying a set of constraints (usually expectation values) corresponding to the known macroscopic quantities.