# Entropic Probability and Context States

## TL;DR

This paper extends a theory of information thermodynamics by introducing new concepts related to entropic probability and free energy.

## Contribution

The novel extension of entropic probability to general state collections with reservoir and context states is introduced.

## Key findings

- An abstract concept of free energy is established through entropic probability.
- A relation between free energy, information erasure, and generalized work is derived.

## Abstract

In a previous paper, we introduced an axiomatic system for information thermodynamics, deriving an entropy function that includes both thermodynamic and information components. From this function, we derived an entropic probability distribution for certain uniform collections of states. Here, we extend the concept of entropic probability to more general collections, augmenting the states by reservoir and context states. This leads to an abstract concept of free energy and establishes a relation between free energy, information erasure, and generalized work.