S-matrix Theory - Bootstrap Models

Bootstrap Models

The basic principles were too general to apply directly, because they are satisfied automatically by any field theory. So to apply to the real world, additional principles were added.

The phenomenological way in which this was done was by taking experimental data and using the dispersion relations to compute new limits. This led to the discovery of some particles, and to successful parameterizations of the interactions of pions and nucleons.

This path was mostly abandoned, because the resulting equations, devoid of any space-time interpretation, were very difficult to understand and solve.