From: utzoo!decvax!cca!gwyn@BRL@sri-unix
Newsgroups: net.physics
Title: Re:  Monopoles
Article-I.D.: sri-unix.4315
Posted: Mon Nov 22 23:03:13 1982
Received: Wed Nov 24 08:43:31 1982

From:     Doug Gwyn <gwyn@BRL>
The 8-fold way long ago became much more elaborate; I haven't been
keeping track lately but with "charm", "color", "flavor", "beauty",
etc., etc. this whole business smacks of numerology.  It is my
impression that the elaborateness is needed because of the very idea
of basing a field theory on a literal infinity of particles -- thus
the "renormalizations" to eliminate divergences, and so forth.

The S matrix is just fine, for an inherently linear theory such as
quantum theory.  It is not tied to any particular symmetry group, as
far as I am aware.