Articles | Volume 9, issue 3
https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-9-615-2021
https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-9-615-2021
Research article
 | 
16 Jun 2021
Research article |  | 16 Jun 2021

Rarefied particle motions on hillslopes – Part 3: Entropy

David Jon Furbish, Sarah G. W. Williams, and Tyler H. Doane

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AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment
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AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision
AR by David J. Furbish on behalf of the Authors (27 Mar 2021)  Author's response   Author's tracked changes   Manuscript 
ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (06 Apr 2021) by Eric Lajeunesse
RR by Joris Heyman (21 Apr 2021)
ED: Publish as is (23 Apr 2021) by Eric Lajeunesse
ED: Publish as is (29 Apr 2021) by Douglas Jerolmack (Editor)
AR by David J. Furbish on behalf of the Authors (30 Apr 2021)
Short summary
The generalized Pareto distribution of particle travel distances on steep hillslopes, as described in two companion papers (Furbish et al., 2021a, 2021b), is a maximum entropy distribution. This simply represents the most probable way that a great number of particles become distributed into distance states, subject to a fixed total energetic cost due to frictional effects of particle–surface collisions. The maximum entropy criterion is equivalent to a formal application of Occam's razor.