, the function
is an important characteristic. It equals the asymptotic minimum of
for random pairs of sequences
, where
We show that if, for
as given, the rate pair
,
approaches the nonlinear part of the curve
, then the sequence
is virtually memoryless. Using this, we determine some extremal sections of the rate region of entropy characterization problems and find a nontrivial invariant for weak asymptotic isomorphy of discrete memoryless correlated sources.