ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the Clebsch–Gordan (CG) coefficients of SU(3) for the products of the most important irreducible representations. Special care is taken to define properly all the relevant phase factors. Some useful symmetry relations for the CG coefficients are derived. In trying to understand the structure of the strong interactions, several higher symmetry schemes have been proposed. These higher symmetries should conserve the isospin and the hypercharge. Especially interesting in this respect is the octet model (unitary symmetry) proposed independently by Gell-Mann and Ne'eman. The chapter considers the mass formula for the octet. The discussion for every other IR can be done along the same lines. In the octet model, one assumes that the strongest interactions are invariant under transformations belonging to the group SU(3). In the unitary symmetry model of strong interactions very definite relations are predicted between the different meson baryon coupling constants.
