The p-Adic Digit Polygon Tower: Frequency Stratification, Exact Hensel-Layer Decomposition, and the Prime-Power Attractor
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: This paper develops the complete spectral theory of the p-adic digit polygon tower — the sequence of digit polygons for 1/p^n as n grows — for a prime p coprime to the base. The discrete Fourier frequencies of the digit sequence of 1/p^n are shown to organize into a p-ary spectral tree: the k_n = p^{n−1}k frequencies decompose into n levels, with each new level activating spectral degrees of freedom invisible at all prior levels. The signed area decomposes additively along this tree into a base contribution p^{n−1}A(1/p) and successive refinement areas R_m(p) contributed by frequencies first appearing at each tower level. The Hensel spectral identity establishes that the residue-orbit DFT at a level-m frequency is controlled by the p-adic digits encoding the successive Hensel lifts of the orbit in Z/p^mZ. The level-2 refinement area is evaluated in closed form via Dedekind sum reciprocity, with the Fermat quotient q_p(b) as the controlling parameter. Wieferich primes are characterized as spectral anomalies — dead branches in the spectral tree — and a generalized Wieferich condition is identified at each tower level. The exponential equidistribution theorem proves that the normalized area converges to the universal attractor −(b^2−1)/24 with exponentially small error O(n^2 (log p)^2 / p^{n/2}). The paper concludes by constructing the projective limit polygon as a pro-finite object in Z_p^* whose spectral measure converges to Haar measure on the completed group.
Author: Fathi, Kevin
Language: English
Subfield: Algebra and Number Theory
Field: Mathematics
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7142600288
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