Related papers: An algebraic approach to laying a ghost to rest
We review the fate of the Ostrogradsky ghost in higher-order theories. We start by recalling the original Ostrogradsky theorem and illustrate, in the context of classical mechanics, how higher-derivatives Lagrangians lead to unbounded…
The Lewis and Riesenfeld method has been investigated, by Ramos et al in Ref.[1], for quantum systems governed by time-dependent PT symmetric Hamiltonians and particularly where the quantum system is a particle submitted to action of a…
In the Horndeski's most general scalar-tensor theories with second-order field equations, we derive the conditions for the avoidance of ghosts and Laplacian instabilities associated with scalar, tensor, and vector perturbations in the…
We present a new understanding of the unstable ghost-like resonance which appears in theories such as quadratic gravity and Lee-Wick type theories. Quantum corrections make this resonance unstable, such that it does not appear in the…
An alternate Hamiltonian H different from Ostrogradski's one is found for the Lagrangian L = L(q, \dot q, \ddot q). We add a suitable divergence to L and insert a=q and b=\ddot q. Contrary to other approaches no constraint is needed because…
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.
It is shown analytically that the energy-conserving implicit nonsymplectic scheme of Bacchini, Ripperda, Chen and Sironi provides a first-order accuracy to numerical solutions of a six-dimensional conservative Hamiltonian system. Because of…
One of the remarkable differences between renormalizable quantum gravity with four-derivative action and its superrenormalizable polynomial generalizations is that the latter admit a more sophisticated particle mass spectrum. Already in the…
With fourth-order derivative theories leading to propagators of the generic ghost-like $1/(k^2-M_1^2)-1/(k^2-M_2^2)$ form, it would appear that such theories have negative norm ghost states and are not unitary. However on constructing the…
It is shown that ghost fields are indispensable in deriving well-defined antiderivatives in pure space-like axial gauge quantizations of gauge fields. To avoid inessential complications we confine ourselves to noninteracting abelian fields…
We construct four-dimensional covariant non-linear theories of massive gravity which are ghost-free in the decoupling limit to all orders. These theories resum explicitly all the nonlinear terms of an effective field theory of massive…
The Fourth order $\phi^4$ model generalizes the classical $\phi^4$ model of quantum field theory, sharing the same kink solution. It is also the dispersive counterpart of the well-known parabolic Cahn-Hilliard equation. Mathematically…
We present an alternative geometric inspired derivation of the quantum cosmology arising from a brane universe in the context of {\it geodetic gravity}. We set up the Regge-Teitelboim model to describe our universe, and we recover its…
The cosmological constant problem and the compatibility of gravity with quantum mechanics are the two most pressing problems in all of gravitational theory. While string theory nicely addresses the latter, it has so far failed to provide…
Negative kinetic energies correspond to ghost degrees of freedom, which are potentially of relevance for cosmology, quantum gravity, and high energy physics. We present a novel wide class of stable mechanical systems where a positive energy…
We present a novel way to constrain the ghost field with respect to other physical fields present in a given theory such that the theory becomes quantizable. This is achieved by imposing positivity of the total kinetic energy of the system…
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…
Poincar\'e gauge theories provide an approach to gravity based on the gauging of the Poincar\'e group, whose homogeneous part generates curvature while the translational sector gives rise to torsion. In this note we revisit the stability of…
Our purpose in this paper is to analyze the Pais-Uhlenbeck (PU) oscillator using complex canonical transformations. We show that starting from a Lagrangian approach we obtain a transformation that makes the extended PU oscillator, with…
In 1980 Englert examined the classic problem of the electromagnetic self-force on an oscillating charged particle. His approach, which was based on an earlier idea of Bateman, was to introduce a charge-conjugate particle and to show that…