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arxiv: 0908.0501 · v1 · pith:3ELHBSXRnew · submitted 2009-08-04 · ⚛️ physics.soc-ph · physics.data-an

Zipf's law from a Fisher variational-principle

classification ⚛️ physics.soc-ph physics.data-an
keywords fisherzipfappropriatearisecitationsdistributionexamplefollows
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Zipf's law is shown to arise as the variational solution of a problem formulated in Fisher's terms. An appropriate minimization process involving Fisher information and scale-invariance yields this universal rank distribution. As an example we show that the number of citations found in the most referenced physics journals follows this law.

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