Physical interpretation of information entropy: Numerical evidence of the Collins conjecture

The conjecture by Collins that the correlation energy ${\mathit{E}}_{\mathrm{corr}}$ is proportional to the information entropy as defined by Jaynes is examined. We present numerical evidence supporting this conjecture by computing atomic information entropies from highly correlated wave functions of configuration-interaction (CI) type for members of the lithium isoelectronic series. Sequences of increasingly larger basis sets are used to show how ${\mathit{E}}_{\mathrm{corr}}^{\mathrm{CI}}$ (CI correlation energy) is related to ${\mathit{S}}_{\mathrm{Jaynes}}$. \textcopyright{} 1996 The American Physical Society.