Infinite primes, cognition, and intentionality

Somehow it is obvious that infinite primes (see this) must have some very deep role to play in quantum TGD and TGD inspired theory of consciousness. What this role precisely is has remained an enigma although I have considered several detailed interpretations (see the link above).

In the following an interpretation allowing to unify the views about fermionic Fock states as a representation of Boolean cognition and p-adic space-time sheets as correlates of cognition is discussed. Very briefly, real and p-adic partonic 3-surfaces serve as space-time correlates for the bosonic super algebra generators, and pairs of real partonic 3-surfaces and their algebraically continued p-adic variants as space-time correlates for the fermionic super generators. Intentions/actions are represented by p-adic/real bosonic partons and cognitions by pairs of real partons and their p-adic variants and the geometric form of Fermi statistics guarantees the stability of cognitions against intentional action.

1. Infinite primes very briefly

Infinite primes have a decomposition to infinite and finite parts allowing an interpretation as a many-particle state of a super-symmetric arithmetic quantum field theory for which fermions and bosons are labeled by primes. There is actually an infinite hierarchy for which infinite primes of a given level define the building blocks of the infinite primes of the next level. One can map infinite primes to polynomials and these polynomials in turn could define space-time surfaces or at least light-like partonic 3-surfaces appearing as solutions of Chern-Simons action so that the classical dynamics would not pose too strong constraints.

The simplest infinite primes at the lowest level are of form m_BX/s_F + n_Bs_F, X=∏_i p_i (product of all finite primes). m_B, n_B, and s_F are defined as m_B= ∏_ip_i^m_i, n_B= ∏_iq_i^n_i, and s_F= ∏_iq_i, m_B and n_B have no common prime factors. The simplest interpretation is that X represents Dirac sea with all states filled and X/s_F + s_F represents a state obtained by creating holes in the Dirac sea. The integers m_B and n_B characterize the occupation numbers of bosons in modes labelled by p_i and q_i and s_F= ∏_iq_i characterizes the non-vanishing occupation numbers of fermions.

The simplest infinite primes at all levels of the hierarchy have this form. The notion of infinite prime generalizes to hyper-quaternionic and even hyper-octonionic context and one can consider the possibility that the quaternionic components represent some quantum numbers at least in the sense that one can map these quantum numbers to the quaternionic primes.

The obvious question is whether configuration space degrees of freedom and configuration space spinor (Fock state) of the quantum state could somehow correspond to the bosonic and fermionic parts of the hyper-quaternionic generalization of the infinite prime as proposed here. That hyper-quaternionic (or possibly hyper-octonionic) primes would define as such the quantum numbers of fermionic super generators does not make sense. It is however possible to have a map from the quantum numbers labelling super-generators to the finite primes. One must also remember that the infinite primes considered are only the simplest ones at the given level of the hierarchy and that the number of levels is infinite.

2. Precise space-time correlates of cognition and intention

The best manner to end up with the proposal about how p-adic cognitive representations relate bosonic representations of intentions and actions and to fermionic cognitive representations is through the following arguments.

1. In TGD inspired theory of consciousness Boolean cognition is assigned with fermionic states. Cognition is also assigned with p-adic space-time sheets. Hence quantum classical correspondence suggets that the decomposition of the space-time into p-adic and real space-time sheets should relate to the decomposition of the infinite prime to bosonic and fermionic parts in turn relating to the above mention decomposition of physical states to bosonic and fermionic parts.

   If infinite prime defines an association of real and p-adic space-time sheets this association could serve as a space-time correlate for the Fock state defined by configuration space spinor for given 3-surface. Also spinor field as a map from real partonic 3-surface would have as a space-time correlate a cognitive representation mapping real partonic 3-surfaces to p-adic 3-surfaces obtained by algebraic continuation.

2. Consider first the concrete interpretation of integers m_B and n_B. The most natural guess is that the primes dividing m_B=∏_ip^m_i characterize the effective p-adicities possible for the real 3-surface. m_i could define the numbers of disjoint partonic 3-surfaces with effective p_i-adic topology and associated with with the same real space-time sheet. These boundary conditions would force the corresponding real 4-surface to have all these effective p-adicities implying multi-p-adic fractality so that particle and wave pictures about multi-p-adic fractality would be mutually consistent. It seems natural to assume that also the integer n_i appearing in m_B=∏_iq_i^n_i code for the number of real partonic 3-surfaces with effective q_i-adic topology.

3. Fermionic statistics allows only single genuinely q_i-adic 3-surface possibly forming a pair with its real counterpart from which it is obtained by algebraic continuation. Pairing would conform with the fact that n_F appears both in the finite and infinite parts of the infinite prime (something absolutely essential concerning the consistency of interpretation!).

   The interpretation could be as follows.

   1. Cognitive representations must be stable against intentional action and fermionic statistics guarantees this. At space-time level this means that fermionic generators correspond to pairs of real effectively q_i-adic 3-surface and its algebraically continued q_i-adic counterpart. The quantum jump in which q_i-adic 3-surface is transformed to a real 3-surface is impossible since one would obtain two identical real 3-surfaces lying on top of each other, something very singular and not allowed by geometric exclusion principle for surfaces. The pairs of boson and fermion surfaces would thus form cognitive representations stable against intentional action.

   2. Physical states are created by products of super algebra generators Bosonic generators can have both real or p-adic partonic 3-surfaces as space-time correlates depending on whether they correspond to intention or action. More precisely, m_B and n_B code for collections of real and p-adic partonic 3-surfaces. What remains to be interpreted is why m_B and n_B cannot have common prime factors (this is possible if one allows also infinite integers obtained as products of finite integer and infinite primes).

   3. Fermionic generators to the pairs of a real partonic 3-surface and its p-adic counterpart obtained by algebraic continuation and the pictorial interpretation is as a pair of fermion and hole.

   4. This picture makes sense if the partonic 3-surfaces containing a state created by a product of super algebra generators are unstable against decay to this kind of 3-surfaces so that one could regard partonic 3-surfaces as a space-time representations for a configuration space spinor field.

4. Are alternative interpretations possible? For instance, could q=m_B/m_B code for the effective q-adic topology assignable to the space-time sheet as suggested here. That q-adic numbers form a ring but not a number field casts however doubts on this interpretation as does also the general physical picture.

3. Number theoretical universality of S-matrix

The discreteness of the intersection of the real space-time sheet and its p-adic variant obtained by algebraic continuation would be a completely universal phenomenon associated with all fermionic states. This suggests that also real-to-real S-matrix elements involve instead of an integral a sum with the arguments of an n-point function running over all possible combinations of the points in the intersection. S-matrix elements would have a universal form which does not depend on the number field at all and the algebraic continuation of the real S-matrix to its p-adic counterpart would trivialize. Note that also fermionic statistics favors strongly discretization unless one allows Dirac delta functions.

The chapter Fusion of p-Adic and Real Variants of Quantum TGD to a More General Theory and TGD as a Generalized Number Theory III: Infinite Primes of "TGD as a Generalized Number Theory", and the chapter Infinite Primes and Consciousness of "Mathematical Aspects of Consciousness Theory" contains this piece of text too.