Riemann zeros and phase transitions via the spectral operator on fractal strings

Abstract

The spectral operator was introduced by Lapidus and van Frankenhuijsen (2006 Fractal Geometry, Complex Dimensions and Zeta Functions: Geometry and Spectra of Fractal Strings) in their reinterpretation of the earlier work of Lapidus and Maier (1995 J. Lond. Math. Soc. 52 15–34) on inverse spectral problems and the Riemann hypothesis. In essence, it is a map that sends the geometry of a fractal string onto its spectrum. In this review, we present the rigorous functional analytic framework given by Herichi and Lapidus (2012) and within which to study the spectral operator. Furthermore, we give a necessary and sufficient condition for the invertibility of the spectral operator (in the critical strip) and therefore obtain a new spectral and operator-theoretic reformulation of the Riemann hypothesis. More specifically, we show that the spectral operator is quasi-invertible (or equivalently, that its truncations are invertible) if and only if the Riemann zeta function ζ(s) does not have any zeros on the vertical line Re(s) = c. Hence, it is not invertible in the mid-fractal case when , and it is quasi-invertible everywhere else (i.e. for all c ∈ (0, 1) with ) if and only if the Riemann hypothesis is true. We also show the existence of four types of (mathematical) phase transitions occurring for the spectral operator at the critical fractal dimension and c = 1 concerning the shape of the spectrum, its boundedness, its invertibility as well as its quasi-invertibility.This article is part of a special issue of Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and Theoretical in honour of Stuart Dowker’s 75th birthday devoted to ‘Applications of zeta functions and other spectral functions in mathematics and physics’.