Abstract
Earlier we analyzed the logic of postulating selection rules of
conservation in particle physics phenomenology, and wrote a computer
program that recovered the strangeness quantum numbers from historical
reactions and assumptions. We proved that that one selection rule
suffices to account for any reactions data that could be explained in
terms of conserved quantum numbers. Since physics practice involves
multiple selection rules, this raised the issue of how to justify
multiple rules. This article analyses several simplicity criteria and
procedures, of which two lead to the desired justification: a minimax
simplicity criterion, and a divide-and-conquer approach that leads to
allowing conservation exceptions, i.e., reactions that disconserve
quantum numbers that are postulated in other contexts not involving
the reactions.
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