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Related papers: Giving up the ghost

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We develop a Bohmian analysis of a two-dimensional ghost Hamiltonian and its mapping to the degenerate Pais-Uhlenbeck model. Using Gaussian wavepackets, we derive the corresponding guidance equations, the centre and width evolution, and the…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2026-03-17 Sanjib Dey , Andreas Fring

Very recently, the Lee-Wick standard model has been introduced as a non-SUSY extension of the Standard model which solves the Hierarchy problem. In this model, each field kinetic term attains a higher derivative term. Like any Lee-Wick…

High Energy Physics - Theory · Physics 2009-09-02 Abouzeid M. Shalaby

We investigate an exactly solvable two-dimensional Lorentzian coupled quantum system that in a certain parameter regime can be transformed to a higher time derivative theory (HTDT) with preserved symplectic structure. By transforming the…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2025-06-27 Andreas Fring , Takano Taira , Bethan Turner

Theories with fourth-order derivatives, including the Lee-Wick finite QED model and Quadratic Gravity, have a better UV behaviour, but the presence of negative metric ghost modes endanger unitarity. Noticing that the ghost acquires a…

High Energy Physics - Theory · Physics 2023-12-01 Jisuke Kubo , Taichiro Kugo

A system of two independent Bosonic Harmonic Oscillators is converted into the respective fourth-order derivative Pais-Uhlenbeck oscillator model. The conversion procedure displays transparently how the quantization of the fourth-order…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2023-03-16 Frieder Kleefeld

We quantise integrable point-particle systems with opposite-sign kinetic terms and nontrivial interactions. Using methods from separability theory, we show that previously determined classical stability conditions also imply discrete…

High Energy Physics - Theory · Physics 2026-04-29 Cédric Deffayet , Atabak Fathe Jalali , Aaron Held , Shinji Mukohyama , Alexander Vikman

We construct a supersymmetric (1+1)-dimensional field theory involving extra derivatives and associated ghosts: the spectrum of the Hamiltonian is not bounded from below, neither from above. In spite of that, there is neither classical, nor…

High Energy Physics - Theory · Physics 2015-06-16 A. V. Smilga

We consider a Hamiltonian formulation of the (2n+1)-order generalization of the Pais-Uhlenbeck oscillator with distinct frequencies of oscillation. This system is invariant under time translations. However, the corresponding Noether…

Mathematical Physics · Physics 2016-05-17 Ivan Masterov

A brief review of the physics of systems including higher derivatives in the Lagrangian is given. All such systems involve ghosts, i.e. the spectrum of the Hamiltonian is not bounded from below and the vacuum ground state is absent. Usually…

High Energy Physics - Theory · Physics 2018-01-17 Andrei Smilga

We review some of the recent results which can be useful for better understanding of the problem of stability of vacuum and in general classical solutions in higher derivative quantum gravity. The fourth derivative terms in the purely…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2018-08-29 Filipe de O. Salles , Ilya L. Shapiro

The theory of ghost imaging is developed in a Gaussian-state framework that both encompasses prior work - on thermal-state and biphoton-state imagers - and provides a complete understanding of the boundary between classical and quantum…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2009-11-13 Baris I. Erkmen , Jeffrey H. Shapiro

We present a detailed analysis of the sixth-order Pais-Uhlenbeck oscillator and construct three-dimensional ghost-free representations through a Tri-Hamiltonian framework. We identify a six-dimensional Abelian Lie algebra of the PU model's…

Mathematical Physics · Physics 2025-09-18 Alexander Felski , Andreas Fring , Bethan Turner

Second-order-derivative plus fourth-order-derivative gravity is the ultraviolet completion of second-order-derivative quantum Einstein gravity. While it achieves renormalizability through states of negative Dirac norm, the unitarity…

High Energy Physics - Theory · Physics 2023-03-21 Philip D. Mannheim

With standard Einstein gravity not being renormalizable at the quantum level there is much interest in studying higher-derivative quantum gravity theories. Thus just as a Ricci-scalar-based action produces a propagator that behaves as a…

High Energy Physics - Theory · Physics 2021-09-28 Philip D. Mannheim

We offer a new Hamiltonian formulation of the classical Pais-Uhlenbeck Oscillator and consider its canonical quantization. We show that for the non-degenerate case where the frequencies differ, the quantum Hamiltonian operator is a…

High Energy Physics - Theory · Physics 2015-05-19 Ali Mostafazadeh

The path integral for ghost fermions, which is heuristically made use of in the Batalin- Fradkin-Vilkovisky approach to quantization of constrained systems, is derived from first principles. The derivation turns out to be rather different…

High Energy Physics - Theory · Physics 2011-09-13 G. Grensing

We suggest and briefly review a new sort of superrenormalizable models of higher derivative quantum gravity. The higher derivative terms in the action can be introduced in such a way that all the unphysical massive states have complex…

High Energy Physics - Theory · Physics 2016-03-23 Leonardo Modesto , Ilya L. Shapiro

We present an example of the quantum system with higher derivatives in the Lagrangian, which is ghost-free: the spectrum of the Hamiltonian is bounded from below and unitarity is preserved.

High Energy Physics - Theory · Physics 2008-11-26 A. V. Smilga

We study a generalization of a Pais-Uhlenbeck oscillator for fermionic variables. Next, we consider an ensemble of these oscillators and we identify a particular case of the Myers-Pospelov model which is relevant for effective theories of…

High Energy Physics - Theory · Physics 2013-04-25 Justo Lopez-Sarrion , Carlos M. Reyes

We discuss exactly solvable systems involving integrals of motion with higher powers of momenta. If one of these integrals is chosen for the Hamiltonian, we obtain a higher-derivative system involving ghosts, i.e. a system whose Hamiltonian…

High Energy Physics - Theory · Physics 2021-06-07 A. V. Smilga