A Strategy for Proving Riemann Hypothesis

Abstract

Super-conformal invariance inspires a strategy for proving the Riemann hypothesis. The vanishing of the Riemann Zeta reduces to an orthogonality condition for the eigenfunctions of a non-Hermitian operator D+ having the zeros of Riemann Zeta as its eigenvalues. The construction of D+ is inspired by the conviction that Riemann Zeta is associated with a physical system allowing super-conformal transformations as its symmetries and second quantization in terms of the representations of the super-conformal algebra. The eigenfunctions of D+ are analogous to coherent states of a harmonic oscillator and in general they are not orthogonal to each other. The states orthogonal to a vacuum state (having a negative norm squared) correspond to the zeros of Riemann Zeta. The physical states having a positive norm squared correspond to the zeros of Riemann Zeta at the critical line. Riemann hypothesis follows both from the hermiticity and positive definiteness of the metric in the space of states corresponding to the zeros of Riemann Zeta function. Also conformal symmetry in appropriate sense implies Riemann hypothesis and after one year from the discovery of the basic idea it became clear that one can actually construct a twenty line long analytic argument for the correctness of the Riemann hypothesis using a standard argument from Lie group.