Related papers: Anti-Instability of Complex Ghost
Generalized Proca Theories are the most general higher-derivative extensions of a massive vector field that retain second-order equations of motion. They are phenomenologically interesting as models of dynamical dark energy that, unlike…
We present a review of cosmological solutions in non-linear massive gravity, focusing on the stability of perturbations. Although homogeneous and isotropic solutions have been found, these are now known to suffer from either Higuchi ghost…
Quantum field theories (QFTs) including fourth-derivative terms such as the Lee-Wick finite QED and quadratic gravity have a better ultra-violet behavior compared to standard theories with second-derivative ones, but the existence of ghost…
We study the linear stability of a nongravitating, steady-state, spherically symmetric ghost condensate accreting onto a Schwarzschild black hole using two methods. The first one is based on the conservation of the energy-momentum tensor of…
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.…
Astrophysical discs which are sufficiently massive and cool are linearly unstable to the formation of axisymmetric structures. In practice, linearly stable discs of surface density slightly below the threshold needed for this instability…
We investigate the classical stability of Schwarzschild-AdS black hole in a massive theory of the Einstein-Weyl gravity. It turns out that the linearized Einstein tensor perturbations exhibit unstable modes featuring the Gregory-Laflamme…
We present for the first time a ghost-free higher-derivative chiral model with a propagating auxiliary F-term field (highest component of the chiral multiplet). We obtain this model by removing a ghost in a higher derivative chiral model,…
We revisit the problem of the helicity-0 ghost mode of massive graviton in the de Sitter background. In general, the presence of a ghost particle, which has negative energy, drives the vacuum to be unstable through pair production of ghost…
The Pais-Uhlenbeck model is a quantum theory described by a higher-derivative field equation. It has been believed for many years that this model possesses ghost states (quantum states of negative norm) and therefore that this model is a…
Recent cosmological observations, including DESI Data Release 2 (DR2) \cite{DESIDR2}, allow for mild redshift evolution of the dark energy equation of state (EoS), motivating renewed interest in the phantom regime ($w<-1$). A no-go result…
Vortex solutions in the two Higgs doublet electroweak model are constructed, and their stability to small perturbations is studied. The most general perturbation is decomposed into angular momentum modes, the least stable mode is…
In this paper we study various aspects of ghost resonances: the resummation that leads to the dressed propagator, the poles locations, the analytic continuation into the second Riemann sheet and the spectral representations in both first…
We report a remarkable type of bifurcation: by varying real parameters, unstable complex orbits may become stable over wide parameter ranges. Thus, phase diagrams obtained by analizing solely the stability of real solutions may be…
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…
Here we have shown that asymptotically anti-de Sitter (AdS) black holes in the Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet (GB) theory are unstable under linear perturbations of spacetime in some region of parameters. This (eikonal) instability develops at high…
We show that the five-dimensional Maxwell theory with the Chern-Simons term is tachyonic in the presence of a constant electric field. When coupled to gravity, a sufficiently large Chern-Simons coupling causes instability of the…
We review the history of the ghost problem in quantum field theory from the Pauli-Villars regulator theory to currently popular fourth-order derivative quantum gravity theories. While these theories all appear to have unitarity-violating…
We study the stability of new neutral and electrically charged four-dimensional black hole solutions of Einstein's equations with a positive cosmological constant and conformally coupled scalar field. The neutral black holes are always…
We make an extensive study of evolution of gravitational perturbations of D-dimensional black holes in Gauss-Bonnet theory. There is an instability at higher multi-poles $\ell$ and large Gauss-Bonnet coupling $\alpha$ for $D= 5, 6$, which…