Combinatorial basis and non-asymptotic form of the Tsallis entropy function

Using a q-analog of Boltzmann's combinatorial basis of entropy, the non-asymptotic non-degenerate and degenerate combinatorial forms of the Tsallis entropy function are derived. The new measures – supersets of the Tsallis entropy and the non-asymptotic variant of the Shannon entropy – are functions of the probability and degeneracy of each state, the Tsallis parameter q and the number of entities N. The analysis extends the Tsallis entropy concept to systems of small numbers of entities, with implications for the permissible range of q and the role of degeneracy. Copyright EDP Sciences/Società Italiana di Fisica/Springer-Verlag 2008