Related papers: Benign vs malicious ghosts in higher-derivative th…
In order to explore some general features of modified theories of gravity which involve higher derivatives and spontaneous Lorentz and/or diffeomorphism symmetry breaking, we study the recently proposed new version of covariant…
The development of instability in the dynamics of theories with higher derivatives is traced in detail in the framework of the Pais-Uhlenbeck fourth oder oscillator. For this aim the external friction force is introduced in the model and…
We argue that the fundamental Theory of Everything is a conventional field theory defined in the flat multidimensional bulk. Our Universe should be obtained as a 3-brane classical solution in this theory. The renormalizability of the…
Recent developments in Macroscopic Fluctuation Theory show that many interacting particle systems behave macroscopically as a combination of a gradient flow with Hamiltonian dynamics. This observation leads to the natural question how these…
Harmonic superspace can be used to construct higher derivative terms in N=2 supersymmetric effective actions despite the infinite redundancy in their description due to the infinite number of auxiliary fields. We are able to write down all…
We analyze perturbative aspects of gauged matrix models, including those where classically the gauge symmetry is partially broken. Ghost fields play a crucial role in the Feynman rules for these vacua. We use this formalism to elucidate the…
High derivative terms do not play a major role in field theories because of the associated complexity and inherent difficulty in connecting these terms to physically measurable quantities. A role for higher derivative terms is analyzed for…
In this work we study the cosmological perturbations in massive bigravity in the presence of non-minimal derivative couplings. For this purpose we consider a specific subclass of Horndeski scalar-tensor interactions that live on the unique…
We present higher-derivative gravities that propagate an arbitrary number of gravitons of different mass on (A)dS backgrounds. These theories have multiple critical points, at which the masses degenerate and the graviton energies are…
The effective field theory for hydrodynamics allows to write the action functional for fluid. In this paper, some simplest possible higher derivative terms in the fluid action and the cosmological consequences of their presence are…
We extend the effective field theory of inflation to a general Lagrangian constructed from Arnowitt-Deser-Misner variables that encompasses the most general interactions with up to second derivatives of the scalar field whose background…
A higher derivative term is introduced in the kinetic energy of the Higgs Lagrangian in the minimal Standard Model. A logically consistent and {\it finite} field theory is obtained when some excitations of the Higgs field are quantized with…
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…
Assuming the existence of a scalar field which undergoes "ghost condensation" and which has a suitably chosen potential, it is possible to obtain a non-singular bouncing cosmology in the presence of regular matter and radiation. The…
We consider the canonical quantization of a generalized two-dimensional massive fermion theory containing higher odd-order derivatives. The requirements of Lorentz invariance, hermiticity of the Hamiltonian and absence of tachyon…
Higher-form symmetries are associated with transformations that only act on extended objects, not on point particles. Typically, higher-form symmetries live alongside ordinary, point-particle (0-form), symmetries and they can be jointly…
We study the renormalization group flow of gravity coupled to scalar matter using functional renormalization group techniques. The novel feature is the inclusion of higher-derivative terms in the scalar propagator. Such terms give rise to…
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…
Many natural, living and engineered systems display oscillations that are characterized by multiple timescales. Typically, such systems are described as slow-fast systems, where the slow dynamics result from a hyperbolic slow manifold that…
This contribution reviews scalar-tensor theories whose Lagrangian contains second-order derivatives of a scalar field but nevertheless propagate only one scalar mode (in addition to the usual two tensor modes), and are thus not plagued with…