Lectures on Analytic S-Matrix Theory [MatSciRep:26]

Abstract

The objectives of these lectures aims to provide a systematic development of essential features of elementary particle theory from pure S-matrix principle. Some of the basic relationships of tensor and spinor analysis are described and a slight generalization of the usual spinor analysis is developed, which is useful in the treatment of particles of higher spin. Spinor analysis based on a one-to-one correspondence between 'four-vectors' and two-by-two matrices is discussed. The lectures explains how often debated questions regarding phases, intrinsic parties, unstable particles, and others are resolved in a straight forward way, when the auxillary concept of field is eliminated. Mandlestam's method is the basis of most current theoretical work, though some of his equations involve physical scattering amplitudes only in the general framework of field theoretic discussions.