An investigation of symmetry breaking in elementary particle physics

Abstract

The study of approximate symmetries in strong interaction physics has recently been the subject of immense theoretical interest. The group theoretical treatment of their breaking mechanisms and effects has already received exhaustive analysis. Here we go a step beyond this treatment in the hope of obtaining a clearer understanding of the underlying dynamics. This is done by considering three distinct approaches to the prob1em of calculating, within a broken symmetry scheme, the dynamical parameters of a given hadronic system.