AXIOMATIC, OR MODEL-INDEPENDENT, APPROACH TO THE SYMMETRIES OF THE ELEMENTARY-PARTICLES

The usual model-building approach to the symmetries of the elementary particles is supplemented by a slightly more abstract, or axiomatic, approach. In this approach stress is laid on the algebraic structure of the gauge theory, and the consequences of various postulates which can be made within this structure are investigated in a direct, model-free, manner. The main problems considered are the relationship of the weak and electromagnetic interactions to, and the breakdown of, flavour symmetry. © 1979 Academia, Publishing House of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences.