Related papers: Living with Ghosts and their Radiative Corrections
We perform a detailed analysis of one-loop corrections to the self-energy of the (off-shell) gauge bosons in six-dimensional N=1 supersymmetric gauge theories on orbifolds. After discussing the Abelian case in the standard Feynman diagram…
The phase structure and the infrared behaviour of the Euclidean 3-dimensional $O(2)$ symmetric ghost scalar field $\phi$ has been investigated in Wegner and Houghton's renormalization group framework, including higher-derivatives in the…
We remark that Ostrogradsky ghosts in higher-derivative gravity, with a finite number of derivatives, are fictitious as they result from an unjustified truncation performed in a complete theory containing infinitely many curvature…
We study a free scalar field $\phi$ in a fixed curved background spacetime subject to a higher derivative field equation of the form $F(\Box)\phi =0$, where $F$ is a polynomial of the form $F(\Box)= \prod_i (\Box-m_i^2)$ and all masses…
We discuss aspects of non-perturbative unitarity in quantum field theory. The additional ghost degrees of freedom arising in "truncations" of an effective action at a finite order in derivatives could be fictitious degrees of freedom. Their…
We provide a full analysis of ghost free higher derivative field theories with coupled degrees of freedom. Assuming the absence of gauge symmetries, we derive the degeneracy conditions in order to evade the Ostrogradsky ghosts, and analyze…
In this paper we propose a non-minimal, and ghost free, coupling between the gauge field and the fermionic one from which we obtain, perturbatively, terms with higher order derivatives as quantum corrections to the photon effective action…
We systematically construct ghost-free higher-derivative actions of Abelian vector supermultiplets in four-dimensional ${\cal N}=1$ global supersymmetric theories. After giving a simple example which illustrates that a naive introduction of…
We consider higher dimensional operators due to quantum gravity or spontaneous compactification of extra dimensions in Kaluza-Klein type theory and their effect in the $SO(10)$ Lagrangian. These operators change the boundary conditions at…
The renormalization in a Lorentz-breaking scalar-spinor higher-derivative model involving $\phi^4$ self-interaction and the Yukawa-like coupling is studied. We explicitly de- monstrate that the convergence is improved in comparison with the…
The supersymmetric completion of higher-derivative operators often requires introducing corrections to the scalar potential. In this paper we study these corrections systematically in the context of theories with $\mathcal{N}=1$ global and…
We argue, at a very basic effective field theory level, that higher dimension operators in scalar theories that break symmetries at scales close to their ultraviolet completion cutoff, include terms that favour the breaking of translation…
We consider six-dimensional higher-derivative ${\cal N}=(1,0)$ supersymmetric gauge theory coupled with the hypermultiplet. We use the background superfield method in six-dimensional ${\cal N}=(1,0)$ harmonic superspace to study the…
In this paper we study perturbatively an extension of the Stelle higher derivative gravity involving an infinite number of derivative terms. We know that the usual quadratic action is renormalizable but suffers of the unitarity problem…
We study $(2,2)$ and $(4,4)$ supersymmetric theories with superspace higher derivatives in two dimensions. A characteristic feature of these models is that they have several different vacua, some of which break supersymmetry. Depending on…
Galileons are higher-derivative theories of a real scalar which nevertheless admit second order equations of motion. They have interesting applications as dark energy models and in early universe cosmology, and have been conjectured to…
We explicitly show that general local higher-derivative theories with only complex conjugate ghosts and normal real particles are unitary at any perturbative order in the loop expansion. The proof presented here relies on integrating the…
In this paper we will consider quantum aspects of a non-local, infinite-derivative scalar field theory - a $\it toy \, model$ depiction of a covariant infinite-derivative, non-local extension of Einstein's general relativity which has…
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…
We present a solution to the ghost problem in fourth order derivative theories. In particular we study the Pais-Uhlenbeck fourth order oscillator model, a model which serves as a prototype for theories which are based on second plus fourth…