The Prior Number: On the Ontological Primacy of Complex Structure and the Invariant T

This paper argues that the complex number is ontologically prior to the real number, and introduces T = 1/2 as the prior structural constant of any system capable of making distinctions. The Riemann Hypothesis is restated in T-language, the functional equation of the Riemann zeta function is shown to be T-symmetric, and the pair correlation function of Riemann zeros is identified as traceable to T through Γ(T) = √π. A falsifiable prediction is proposed: that the Montgomery pair correlation function is derivable from T-symmetry without appeal to random matrix theory. Experimental confirmation that complex structure is physically necessary is drawn from Renou et al. (2021) and Chen et al. (2022). The ontological status of time is also addressed within the framework.