Elementary Particles in a Quantum Theory Over a Galois Field

Abstract

We consider elementary particles in a quantum theory based on a Galois field. In this approach infinities cannot exist, the cosmological constant problem does not arise and one irreducible representation of the symmetry algebra necessarily describes a particle and its antiparticle simultaneously. {\it In other words, the very existence of antiparticles is a strong indication that nature is described rather by a finite field (or at least a field with a nonzero characteristic) than by complex numbers.} As a consequence, the spin-statistics theorem is simply a requirement that standard quantum theory should be based on complex numbers and elementary particles cannot be neutral. The Dirac vacuum energy problem has a natural solution and the vacuum energy (which in the standard theory is infinite and negative) equals zero as it should be.