Related papers: Higher dimensional higher derivative $\phi^4$ theo…
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…
A discussion of the number of degrees of freedom, and their dynamical properties, in higher-derivative gravitational theories is presented. The complete non-linear sigma model for these degrees of freedom is exhibited using the method of…
A scalar field theory with 4-derivative kinetic terms and 4-derivative cubic and quartic couplings is presented as a proxy for quantum quadratic gravity (QQG). The scalar theory is renormalizable and asymptotically free and the remaining…
Logarithmic finite-size scaling of the O($n$) universality class at the upper critical dimensionality ($d_c=4$) has a fundamental role in statistical and condensed-matter physics and important applications in various experimental systems.…
We consider higher derivative gravity lagrangians in 3 and 4 dimensions, which admit simple c-theorems, including upto six derivative curvature invariants. Following a suggestion by Myers, these lagrangians are restricted such that the…
At critical values of the scaling dimension $\lambda$, supermultiplets of the global ${\cal N}$-Extended one-dimensional Supersymmetry algebra induce $D$-module representations of finite superconformal algebras (the latters being identified…
We complete the first stage of constructing a theory of fields not investigated before; these fields transform according to Lorentz group representations decomposable into an infinite direct sum of finite-dimensional irreducible…
We make a full classification of scalar monomials built of the Riemann curvature tensor up to the quadratic order and of the covariant derivatives of the scalar field up to the third order. From the point of view of the effective field…
We present all scalar-tensor Lagrangians that are cubic in second derivatives of a scalar field, and that are degenerate, hence avoiding Ostrogradsky instabilities. Thanks to the existence of constraints, they propagate no more than three…
The symmetry reduction of dynamical systems that are invariant under changes of global scale is well-understood for classical theories of particles, and fields. The excision of the superfluous degree of freedom generating such rescalings…
We use a description based on differential forms to systematically explore the space of scalar-tensor theories of gravity. Within this formalism, we propose a basis for the scalar sector at the lowest order in derivatives of the field and…
All N=4 conformal supergravities in four space-time dimensions are constructed. These are the only N=4 supergravity theories whose actions are invariant under off-shell supersymmetry. They are encoded in terms of a holomorphic function that…
We consider brane world models with one extra dimension. In the bulk there is in addition to gravity a three form gauge potential or equivalently a scalar (by generalisation of electric magnetic duality). We find classical solutions for…
A higher order theory of dilaton gravity is constructed as a generalization of the Einstein-Lovelock theory of pure gravity. Its Lagrangian contains terms with higher powers of the Riemann tensor and of the first two derivatives of the…
The critical behavior of a non-local scalar field theory is studied. This theory has a non-local quartic interaction term which involves a real power -\beta of the Laplacian. The parameter \beta can be tuned so as to make that interaction…
Quantum gravity in AdS$_7 \times$S$^4$ is dual to a 6d superconformal field theory, known as the 6d $(2,0)$ theory, which is very challenging to describe because it lacks a conventional Lagrangian description. On the other hand, certain…
The most general theory of gravity in d-dimensions which leads to second order field equations for the metric has [(d-1)/2] free parameters. It is shown that requiring the theory to have the maximum possible number of degrees of freedom,…
We give a unified division algebraic description of (D=3, N=1,2,4,8), (D=4, N=1,2,4), (D=6, N=1,2) and (D=10, N=1) super Yang-Mills theories. A given (D=n+2, N) theory is completely specified by selecting a pair (A_n, A_{nN}) of division…
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…
Perturbation theory and renormalization group methods are used to derive a finite-size scaling theory for the partition function zeroes and thermodynamic functions in the $O(n)$ $\phi^4$ model in four dimensions. The leading power--law…