The Hilbert-Polya conjecture states that the imaginary parts of the zeros of
the Riemann zeta function are eigenvalues of a quantum hamiltonian. If so,
conjectures by Katz and Sarnak put this hamiltonian in Altland and Zirnbauer's
universality class C. This implies that the system must have a nonclassical
two-valued degree of freedom. In such a system, the dominant primitive periodic
orbits contribute to the density of states with a phase factor of -1. This
resolves a previously mysterious sign problem with the oscillatory
contributions to the density of the Riemann zeros.Comment: 4 pages, no figures; v3-6 have minor corrections to v2, v2 has a more
complete solution of the sign problem than v