P-adic space-time and string theory

Arguments for the possibility of a p-adic structure of space-time are advanced. The p-adic analog of the Veneziano amplitude is proposed, and this permits a start to be made on the construction of the theory of p-adic strings. The same questions are considered over Galois fields, for which the analog of the Veneziano amplitude is a Jacobi sum that can be expressed in terms of p-adic cohomologies of Fermat curves. An explicit expression for the vertex operator of the corresponding string theory is given