Maximum Entropy and Bayesian Methods

This volume represents the proceedings of the Ninth Annual MaxEnt Workshop, held at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, on August 14-18, 1989. These annual meetings are devoted to the theory and practice of Bayesian Probability and the Maximum Entropy Formalism. The fields of application exemplified at MaxEnt ‘89 are as diverse as the foundations of probability theory and atmospheric carbon variations, the 1987 Supernova and fundamental quantum mechanics. Subjects include sea floor drug absorption in man, pressures, neutron scattering, plasma equilibrium, nuclear magnetic resonance, radar and astrophysical image reconstruction, mass spectrometry, generalized parameter estimation, delay estimation, pattern recognition, heave responses in underwater sound and many others. The first ten papers are on probability theory, and are grouped together beginning with the most abstract followed by those on applications. The tenth paper involves both Bayesian and MaxEnt methods and serves as a bridge to the remaining papers which are devoted to Maximum Entropy theory and practice. Once again, an attempt has been made to start with the more theoretical papers and to follow them with more and more practical applications. Papers number 29, 30 and 31, by Kesaven, Seth and Kapur, represent a somewhat different, perhaps even unorthodox viewpoint, and are included here even though the editor and, indeed many in the audience at Dartmouth, disagreed with their content. I feel that scientific disagreements are essential in any developing field, and often lead to a deeper understanding.