Shannon information, LMC complexity and Renyi entropies:: a straightforward approach

The LMC complexity, an indicator of complexity based on a probabilistic description, is revisited. A straightforward approach allows us to establish the time evolution of this indicator in a near-equilibrium situation and gives us a new insight for interpreting the LMC complexity for a general non equilibrium system. Its relationship with the Renyi entropies is also explained. One of the advantages of this indicator is that its calculation does not require a considerable computational effort in many cases of physical and biological interest. (c) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.