The Number-Theoretical Spin Chain and the Riemann Zeroes

Abstract

It is an empirical observation that the Riemann zeta function can be well approximated in its critical strip using the Number-Theoretical Spin Chain. A proof of this would imply the Riemann Hypothesis. Here we relate that question to the one of spectral radii of a family of Markov chains. This in turn leads to the question whether certain graphs are Ramanujan. The general idea is to explain the pseudorandom features of certain number-theoretical functions by considering them as observables of a spin chain of statistical mechanics. In an appendix we relate the free energy of that chain to the Lewis Equation of modular theory.