Linear Regge trajectories and hadronic level degeneracy at high energies

The statistical bootstrap condition for hadronic systems at rest implies an asymptotic density of states increasing exponentially in the total energy. The author shows that if for a given system the squared energies of all possible subsystems are constrained to lie on linear Regge trajectories, such a behaviour of the level density indeed follows. This result is then used to clarify common features of dual and statistical bootstrap approaches. (14 refs).