Algebras and manifolds: differential, difference, simplicial and quantum (Q1083730)

Generalized manifolds and Clifford algebras depict the world at levels of resolution ranging from the classical macroscopic to the quantum microscopic. The coarsest picture is a differential manifold and algebra (dm), direct integral of familiar local Clifford algebras of spin operators in curved time-space. Next is a finite difference manifold (\(\Delta\) m) of Regge calculus. This is a subalgebra of the third, a Minkowskian simplicial manifold (\(\Sigma\) m). The most detailed description is the quantum manifold (Qm), whose algebra is the free Clifford algebra S of quantum set theory. We surmise that each \(\Sigma\) m is a classical ''condensation'' of a Qm. Quantum simplices have both integer and half-integer spins in their spectrum. A quantum set theory of nature requires a series of reductions leading from the Qm and a world descriptor W up through the intermediate \(\Sigma\) m and \(\Delta\) m to a dm and an action principle. What may be a new algebraic language for topology, classical or quantum, is a by-product of the work.