Related papers: A unifying framework for ghost-free Lorentz-invari…
We consider generic derivative corrections to the Einstein gravity and find new classes of theories without ghost around the Minkowski background by means of an extension of the spacetime geometry. We assume the Riemann-Cartan geometry,…
We construct Lorentz-invariant massless/massive spin-2 theories in flat spacetime. Starting from the most generic action of a rank-2 symmetric tensor field whose Lagrangian contains up to quadratic in first derivatives of a field, we…
We construct the non-standard Lagrangian, called the multiplicative form, of the homogeneous scalar field and fermion field through the inverse calculus of variations, which the equation of motion still satisfies the Klein-Gordon and Dirac…
We discuss the geometry of the Lagrangian quantization scheme based on (generalized) Schwinger-Dyson BRST symmetries. When a certain set of ghost fields are integrated out of the path integral, we recover the Batalin-Vilkovisky formalism,…
We have discovered two unconstrained forms of free Lagrangian for continuous spin(CS) theory in arbitrary flat spacetime dimension for bosonic case. These Lagrangians, unlike that by Schuster and Toro, do not include delta functions and are…
As an alternative to the covariant Ostrogradski method, we show that higher-derivative relativistic Lagrangian field theories can be reduced to second differential-order by writing them directly as covariant two-derivative theories…
We present a method for the Hamiltonian formulation of field theories that are based on Lagrangians containing second derivatives. The new feature of our formalism is that all four partial derivatives of the field variables are initially…
We give a brief overview of the BRST approach to the gauge invariant Lagrangian formulation for free massive higher-spin bosonic fields focusing on two specific aspects. First, the theory is considered in four dimensional flat space in…
A necessary condition for a generally covariant scalar-tensor theory to be ghostfree is that it contains no extra degrees of freedom in the unitary gauge, in which the Lagrangian corresponds to the spatially covariant gravity. Comparing…
We consider a class of non-local gravity theories where the Lagrangian is a function of powers of the inverse d'Alembertian operator acting on the Ricci scalar. We take an approach in which the non-local Lagrangian is made local by…
We consider, in Minkowski spacetime, higher-order Maxwell Lagrangians with terms quadratic in the derivatives of the field strength tensor, and study their degrees of freedom. Using a 3+1 decomposition of these Lagrangians, we extract the…
We propose a unimodular version of the Brans-Dicke theory designed with a constrained Lagrangian formulation. The resulting field equations are traceless. The vacuum solutions in the cosmological background reproduce the corresponding…
We present the most general ghost-free classical Lagrangian containing first-order derivatives and describing interacting real Abelian spin-one fields on Minkowski spacetime. We study both massive Proca and massless Maxwell fields and allow…
It is commonly believed that the dRGT theory is the unique way to describe a massive spin-2 field without ghosts. While dRGT is arguably the most elegant massive gravity theory, it seems that it may not be the unique ghost-free one if one…
We consider a system of nonlinear spinor and scalar fields with minimal coupling in general relativity. The nonlinearity in the spinor field Lagrangian is given by an arbitrary function of the invariants generated from the bilinear spinor…
We develop the frame-like formulation of massive bosonic higher spins fields in the case of 3-dimensional $(A)dS$ space with the arbitrary cosmological constant. The formulation is based on gauge-invariant description by involving the…
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…
We study Lagrangians with the minimal amount of gauge symmetry required to propagate spin-two particles without ghosts or tachyons. In general, these Lagrangians also have a scalar mode in their spectrum. We find that, in two cases, the…
It has been claimed in a series of papers that scalar fields with a fourth-order Lagrangian $\sim(\Box\varphi)^2$ can solve the cosmological constant problem by canceling the loop contributions from standard model fields, and that their…
We perform a Hamiltonian analysis of a large class of scalar-tensor Lagrangians which depend quadratically on the second derivatives of a scalar field. By resorting to a convenient choice of dynamical variables, we show that the Hamiltonian…