PHYSICAL SYMMETRIES IN A THEORY OF SEVERAL SCALAR REAL FIELDS

Let us consider a theory of n scalar, real, local, Poincaré covariant quantum fields forming an irreducible set and giving rise to one particle states belonging to the same mass different from zero. The vacuum is unique. It is shown under fairly weak assumptions that every Poincaré and TCP invariant symmetry of the theory, implemented unitarily, which mapps localized elements of the field algebra into operators almost local with respect to the former (such a symmetry we call a physical one) can be defined uniquely in terms of the incoming or outgoing fields and an n-dimensional (real) orthogonal matrix. The symmetry commutes with the scattering matrix. Incidentally we show also that the symmetry groups are compact. A special case of these symmetries are the internal symmetries and symmetries induced by locally conserved currents local with respect to the basic fields and transforming under the same representation of the Poincaré group. We may make linear combinations out the original fields resulting in complex fields and its complex conjugate in a suitable way. The inspection of the representations of the groups SO(n) and their subgroups sheds some light on the s.c. generalized Carruthers Theorem concerning the self- and pair-conjugate multiplets. © 1969 Springer-Verlag.