Related papers: An algebraic approach to laying a ghost to rest
We provide a new formulation of the Pais-Uhlenbeck oscillator which is a prototype of a higher derivative model. Different parametrisations that reveal the model as a combination of two simple harmonic oscillators are introduced.…
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…
Shortcomings of Dirac's constrained analysis in the context of fourth order Pais-Uhlenbeck oscillator action and the appearance of badly affected phase-space Hamiltonian for a generalized fourth order oscillator action, following…
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…
In this paper a fourth order finite difference ghost point method for the Poisson equation on regular Cartesian mesh is presented. The method can be considered the high order extension of the second ghost method introduced earlier by the…
Generic higher derivative theories are believed to be fundamentally unphysical because they contain Ostrogradsky ghosts. We show that within complex classical mechanics it is possible to construct higher derivative theories that circumvent…
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…
Preservation of coherence is a fundamental yet subtle phenomenon in open systems. We uncover its relation to symmetries respected by the system Hamiltonian and its coupling to the environment. We discriminate between local and global…
The "Auxiliary Extra Dimension" model was proposed in order to provide a geometrical interpretation to modifications of general relativity, in particular to non-linear massive gravity. In this context, the theory was shown to be ghost free…
We investigate the cosmological dynamics of scalar fields governed by higher-order gravity, with particular emphasis on models inspired by the Pais-Uhlenbeck oscillator--a prototypical fourth-order system known for its connection to…
We study higher derivative terms associated with scalar field cosmology. We consider a coupling between the scalar field and the geometry inspired by the Pais-Uhlenbeck oscillator, given by…
The present letter considers the quantization method developed in [1]-[9], which postulates that, in several situations, negative norm or ghost states can be avoided in order to give positive probabilities. These authors also postulate a…
The Hamiltonian H specifies the energy levels and time evolution of a quantum theory. A standard axiom of quantum mechanics requires that H be Hermitian because Hermiticity guarantees that the energy spectrum is real and that time evolution…
The Ostrogradski ghost problem that appears in higher derivative system is considered for systems with constraints. A prescription for removal of the ghost creating momenta is described based on the Dirac's constraint analysis. It is shown…
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…
Motivated by the ghost condensate model, we study the Randall-Sundrum (RS) brane-world with an arbitrary function of the higher derivative kinetic terms, $\mathcal{P}(X)$, where $X=-(\nabla \phi)^{2}$. The five-dimensional Einstein…
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…
We analyse the emergence of the Unruh effect within the context of a field Lagrangian theory associated to the Pais-Uhlenbeck fourth order oscillator model. To this end, we introduce a transformation that brings the Hamiltonian bounded from…
An alternative to the effective field theory approach to treat ghosts in higher derivative theories is to attempt to integrate them out via the Euclidean path integral formalism. It has been suggested that this method could provide a…
The aim of these notes is to provide a self-contained review of why it is generically a problem when a solution of a theory possesses ghost fields among the perturbation modes. We define what a ghost field is and we show that its presence…