The spectrum-generating group SO(3,2) applied to the radiative decays of the nucleon resonances

A spectrum generating group contains operators which transform between the states of a physical system with different energy levels. This idea has been applied successfully in nuclear and molecular physics to predict spectra and decay rates. This dissertation applies the spectrum generating group approach to hadrons where the role of the energy levels is taken by the mass levels of various resonances. As the hadron resonances are relativistic systems, a relativistic oscillator model is constructed. This model does not use relativistic oscillator canonical commutation relations for the position and intrinsic momentum but commutation relations which are connected with the group SO(3,2) which serves as the relativistic spectrum generating group. The free relativistic Hamiltonian predicts the mass levels of the mesons and baryons. If electromagnetic interactions are introduced in this Hamiltonian in a well defined way, the model can be used to calculate radiative decays of the nucleon resonances. The predictions are compared with the experimental data and the results of other models