How come the quantum? Testing the topological origin of Planck's quantum of action

An answer to Wheeler’s question “How come the quantum?” is proposed. Our answer goes 
back to an approach by Dirac and proposes a topological origin for Planck’s quantum of 
action. We propose a new fundamental principle: the quantum of action h-bar is due to twist-induced 
switches of crossings among fluctuating strands of Planck radius embedded in three 
dimensions. Due to their small radius, strands are invisible, though physically real. Nevertheless, 
crossing switches due to Dirac’s trick couple to photons, are thus observable, and 
define all physical observables. We verify the consequences of this fundamental principle
against the basic quantum effects. The principle yields the appearance of particles as rational
tangles of strands, their indistinguishability, spin, and statistics. The principle also yields
the quantization of action and of angular momentum, wave-particle duality, emergence of
wave functions and Hilbert spaces, interference, Feynman’s path integral formulation, the
Schrödinger equation, Heisenberg’s indeterminacy relation, non-commutativity, entanglement,
the properties of photons, probabilities in measurements, Born’s rule, decoherence,
spinors, chirality, antiparticles, and the Dirac equation. Strands also yield the principle of
least action. The topological origin of the quantum of action appears to agree with all observations
and to be unique. Strands go beyond quantum mechanics: they determine lepton
masses, solve the mass hierarchy problem, and are consistent with the properties of physical
space, with quantum field theory, particle physics, and general relativity.