Related papers: Faddeev-Popov ghosts in quantum gravity beyond per…
We use functional renormalization group methods to study gravity minimally coupled to a free scalar field. This setup provides the prototype of a gravitational theory which is perturbatively non-renormalizable at one-loop level, but may…
The ultraviolet completion of gauge theories by higher derivative terms can dramatically change their behavior at high energies. The requirement of asymptotic freedom imposes very stringent constraints that are only satisfied by a small…
We show that the strong self-interaction of the scalar polarization of a massive graviton can be understood in terms of the propagation of an extra ghost-like degree of freedom, thus relating strong coupling to the sixth degree of freedom…
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…
Both General Relativity and the Standard Model of particle physics are not UV complete. General Relativity is perturbatively non-renormalizable, while the Standard Model features Landau poles, where couplings are predicted to diverge at…
We encounter these demons on the path towards a UV complete QFT of gravity and a horizonless replacement for black holes. The fate of the ghost is discussed in the strong coupling version of classically-scale-invariant quadratic gravity.…
In this paper, we investigate three important issues: stability, ghost and strong coupling, in the Horava-Melby-Thompson setup of the Horava-Lifshitz theory with $\lambda \not= 1$, generalized recently by da Silva. We first develop the…
The renormalization group flow of unimodular quantum gravity is investigated within two different classes of truncations of the flowing effective action. In particular, we search for non-trivial fixed-point solutions for polynomial…
An outline is given of a recently discovered technique for building a quantum effective action that is completely independent of gauge-fixing choices and ghost determinants. One makes maximum use of the geometry and fibre-bundle structure…
Interactions in bimetric theory, which can describe gravity in the presence of an extra spin-2 field, are severely constrained by the requirement of the absence of the Boulware-Deser ghost instability. Recently an interesting new matter…
We remark that Ostrogradsky ghosts in higher-derivative gravity, with a finite number of derivatives, are fictitious as they result from an unjustified truncation performed in a complete theory containing infinitely many curvature…
Recently the exact NSVZ $\beta$-function was rewritten in the form of a relation between the $\beta$-function and the anomalous dimensions of the quantum gauge superfield, of the Faddeev--Popov ghosts, and of the matter superfields. It was…
Albert Einstein's General Relativity (GR) from 1916 has become the widely accepted theory of gravity and been tested observationally to a very high precision at different scales of energy and distance. At the same time, there still remain…
We show that cosmological acceleration, Dark Energy (DE) effect is a consequence of the zero rest mass, conformal non-invariance of gravitons, and 1-loop finiteness of quantum gravity (QG). The effect is due to graviton-ghost condensates…
Ghosts have been a stumbling block in the development of a UV complete quantum field theory for gravity. We discuss how difficulties associated with ghosts are overcome in the context of 0+1d QFT. Obtaining a probability interpretation is…
In this work, we investigate higher-derivative quantum field theories and the problem of Ostrogradsky instability within an open-system Keldysh-Lindblad framework. Coupling the ghost sector to dissipative baths generates non-perturbative…
The asymptotic safety conjecture is examined for quantum gravity in four dimensions. Using the renormalisation group, we find evidence for an interacting UV fixed point for polynomial actions up to the 34th power in the Ricci scalar. The…
Weinberg's asymptotic safety scenario provides an elegant mechanism to construct a quantum theory of gravity within the framework of quantum field theory based on a non-Gau{\ss}ian fixed point of the renormalization group flow. In this work…
p-form gauge theories with Stueckelberg coupling are quantized in an irreducible antifield-BRST way. As a consequence, neither the ghosts of ghosts nor their antifields appear. Some irreducible gauge conditions are inferred naturally within…
We discuss the conceptual ideas underlying the Asymptotic Safety approach to the nonperturbative renormalization of gravity. By now numerous functional renormalization group studies predict the existence of a suitable nontrivial ultraviolet…