Work

Maximal Diversity and Zipf’s Law

Year: 2021

Type: article

Abstract: Zipf's law describes the empirical size distribution of the components of many systems in natural and social sciences and humanities. We show, by solving a statistical model, that Zipf's law co-occurs with the maximization of the diversity of the component sizes. The law ruling the increase of such diversity with the total dimension of the system is derived and its relation with Heaps's law is discussed. As an example, we show that our analytical results compare very well with linguistics and population datasets.

Source: Physical Review Letters

DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.127.128301

Authors: Onofrio Mazzarisi, Amanda de Azevedo-Lopes, Jeferson J. Arenzon, Federico Corberi

Institutions: University of Salerno, Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Instituto Nacional de Ciência e Tecnologia de Sistemas Complexos, Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Gruppo Collegato di Salerno

Language: English

Topic: Complex Systems and Time Series Analysis

Subfield: Economics and Econometrics

Field: Economics, Econometrics and Finance

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,750

Funders: Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung, Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior, Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung, Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico