Toward the Unification of Physics and Number Theory

Abstract

This paper introduces the notion of simplex-integers and shows how, in contrast to digital numbers, they are the most powerful numerical symbols that implicitly express the information of an integer and its set theoretic substructure. A geometric analogue to the primality test is introduced: when [Formula: see text] is prime, it divides [Formula: see text] for all [Formula: see text]. The geometric form provokes a novel hypothesis about the distribution of prime-simplexes that, if solved, may lead to a proof of the Riemann hypothesis. Specifically, if a geometric algorithm predicting the number of prime simplexes within any bound [Formula: see text]-simplex or associated [Formula: see text] lattice is discovered, a deep understanding of the error factor of the prime number theorem would be realized — the error factor corresponding to the distribution of the non-trivial zeta zeros, which might be the mysterious link between physics and the Riemann hypothesis [D. Schumayer and D. A. W. Hutchinson, Colloquium: Physics of the Riemann hypothesis, Rev. Mod. Phys. 83 (2011) 307]. It suggests how quantum gravity and particle physicists might benefit from a simplex-integer-based quasicrystal code formalism. An argument is put forth that the unifying idea between number theory and physics is code theory, where reality is information theoretic and 3-simplex integers form physically realistic aperiodic dynamic patterns from which space, time and particles emerge from the evolution of the code syntax.