Related papers: Living with Ghosts and their Radiative Corrections
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…
We obtain the $\beta$-functions for the two dimensionless couplings of a 4d renormalizable scalar field theory with cubic and quartic 4-derivative interactions. Both couplings can be asymptotically free in the UV, and in some cases also in…
Higher Derivative (HD) Field Theories can be transformed into second order equivalent theories with a direct particle interpretation. In a simple model involving abelian gauge symmetries we examine the fate of the possible gauge fixings…
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…
In light of the cosmological observations, we investigate dark energy models from the Horndeski theory of gravity. In particular, we consider cosmological models with the derivative self-interaction of the scalar field and the derivative…
Adding terms quadratic in the curvature to the Einstein-Hilbert action renders gravity renormalizable. This property is preserved in the presence of the most general renormalizable couplings with (and of) a generic quantum field theory…
We consider a topological coupling between a pseudo-scalar field and a 3-form gauge field in ${\cal N}=1$ supersymmetric higher derivative 3-form gauge theories in four spacetime dimensions. We show that ghost/tachyon-free higher derivative…
Perturbative corrections to correlation functions for interacting theories in de Sitter spacetime often grow secularly with time, due to the properties of fluctuations on super-Hubble scales. This growth can lead to a breakdown of…
Gyroscopic systems in classical and quantum field theory are characterized by the presence of at least two scalar degrees of freedom and by terms that mix fields and their time derivatives in the quadratic Lagrangian. In Minkowski…
The origin of the observed dark energy could be explained entirely within the standard model, with no new fields required. We show how the low-energy sector of the chiral QCD Lagrangian, once embedded in a non-trivial spacetime, gives rise…
We construct several towers of scalar quantum field theories with an $O(N)$ symmetry which have higher derivative kinetic terms. The Lagrangians in each tower are connected by lying in the same universality class at the $d$-dimensional…
Theories with approximate no-scale structure, such as the Large Volume Scenario, have a distinctive hierarchy of multiple mass scales in between TeV gaugino masses and the Planck scale, which we call SUSY's Ladder. This is a particular…
In the context of the Higher-Order Maxwell-Einstein-Scalar (HOMES) theories, which are invariant under spacetime diffeomorphisms and $U(1)$ gauge symmetry, we study two broad subclasses: the first is up to linear in $R_{\mu\nu\alpha\beta}$,…
We propose a novel method to construct ghost-free multiple scalar-tensor theories. The key idea is to use the geometric quantities of hypersurfaces defined by the scalar fields, rather than the covariant derivatives of scalar fields or…
In this work we extend the Kugo-Ojima-Nakanishi covariant operator formalism to quantize two higher derivative systems, considering their extended phase space structures. More specifically, the one describing spin-$0$ particles by a vector…
We analyze the leading effective operators which induce a quartic momentum dependence in the Higgs propagator, for a linear and for a non-linear realization of electroweak symmetry breaking. Their specific study is relevant for the…
The objective of this thesis is to present a viable extension of general relativity free from cosmological singularities. A viable cosmology, in this sense, is one that is free from ghosts, tachyons or exotic matter, while staying true to…
We study the supersymmetric partition function of 4d supersymmetric gauge theories with a U(1) R-symmetry on Euclidean $S^3\times S_\beta^1$, with $S^3$ the unit-radius squashed three-sphere, and $\beta$ the circumference of the circle. For…
We investigate the gravitational one-loop divergences of the standard model in large extra dimensions, with gravitons propagating in the (4+delta)-dimensional bulk and gauge fields as well as scalar and fermionic multiplets confined to a…
We go beyond a systematic review of the semiclassical approaches for determining the scaling dimensions of fixed-charge operators in $U(1)$ and $O(N)$ models by introducing a general strategy apt at determining the relation between a given…