An elementary-particle picture developed primarily by Barut as an alternative to the standard model is re-examined. This model is formulated on the basis of strong short-range magnetic interactions among the stable particles (p, e , v) and at present is able to account qualitatively for most of the known phenomena.For more than three decades high-energy physicists have labored to assemble a wealth of data into a modern picture of elementary particles. The result, described principally in terms of quantum field theory (QFT), is a body of conventional wisdom generally referred to as the standard model. This development has not proceeded without reasoned disagreement, however, and a parallel body of other views exists, which have been less successful in reaching fruition. In particular, the work of Asim Barut and colleagues has aimed to construct a more transparent theory of particles that avoids their instantaneous appearance from, and disappearance into, the vacuum--and which abjures the introduction of new forces in a picture already unified by the electromagnetic field. Guided by a penchant for simplicity and a vision of "the way it ought to be", Barut has provided the skeletal structure for an alternative picture that actually turns out to have a measure of flesh on it. The time seems quite appropriate to gather together and review the essential features of these alternate views, due primarily to one who is very definitely a nonstandard model himself.
THE S T A N D A R D M O D E LRegardless of what the future holds, the so-called standard model of particles and fields, consisting of the electroweak theory and quantum