Inocencio Ortiz ; Santiago Gómez-Guerrero ; Christian E. Schaerer - On topological and algebraic structures of categorical random variables

cm:17035 - Communications in Mathematics, April 1, 2026, Volume 34 (2026), Issue 2 (Special issue: Latin American mathematics) - https://doi.org/10.46298/cm.17035
On topological and algebraic structures of categorical random variablesArticle

Authors: Inocencio Ortiz ; Santiago Gómez-Guerrero ; Christian E. Schaerer

    Based on entropy and symmetrical uncertainty (SU), we define a metric for categorical random variables and show that this metric can be promoted into an appropriate quotient space of categorical random variables. Moreover, we also show that there is a natural commutative monoid structure in the same quotient space, which is compatible with the topology induced by the metric, in the sense that the monoid operation is continuous.


    Volume: Volume 34 (2026), Issue 2 (Special issue: Latin American mathematics)
    Published on: April 1, 2026
    Accepted on: March 2, 2026
    Submitted on: December 4, 2025
    Keywords: Information Theory, 94A17, 54E40, 20M32, 54H99