Related papers: Living with Ghosts and their Radiative Corrections
We consider the O(3) or CP(1) nonlinear sigma model as an effective field theory in a derivative expansion, with the most general Lagrangian that obeys O(3), parity and Lorentz symmetry. We work out the complete list of possible operators…
We study the one-loop renormalization and evolution of the couplings in scalar field theories of the Lifshitz type, i.e. with different scaling in space and time. These theories are unitary and renormalizable, thanks to higher spatial…
We evaluate one-loop partition functions of higher-spin fields in thermal flat space with angular potentials; this computation is performed in arbitrary space-time dimension, and the result is a simple combination of Poincar\'e characters.…
We investigate the decoherence of an Unruh-DeWitt detector coupled to scalar, electromagnetic, and spinor fields in four-dimensional Minkowski spacetime. By employing the Schwinger-Keldysh influence functional formalism, we derive a…
Supersymmetric Grand Unified Theories have a rich spectrum of particles barely heavier than the intermediate vector bosons. As their non-supersymmetric counterparts, they lead to many relations among low energy observables. But the precise…
In effective field theory, the positivity bounds of higher derivative operators are derived from analyticity, causality, and unitarity. We show that the positivity bounds on some operators of the effective field theory, e.g.,…
Recently it was shown that the scaling dimension of the operator $\phi^n$ in $\lambda(\bar\phi\phi)^2$ theory may be computed semiclassically at the Wilson-Fisher fixed point in $d=4-\epsilon$, for generic values of $\lambda n$, and this…
In the DGP model, the ``self-accelerating'' solution is plagued by a ghost instability, which makes the solution untenable. This fact as well as all interesting departures from GR are fully captured by a four-dimensional effective…
We study the creation and evolution of cosmological perturbations in renormalizable quadratic gravity with a Weyl term. We adopt a prescription that implies the stability of the vacuum at the price of introducing a massive spin-two ghost…
We study the stability of the effective higgs potential in the split supersymmetry and Little Higgs models. In particular, we study the effects of higher dimensional operators in the effective potential on the higgs mass predictions. We…
How many canonical degrees of freedom does a quantum field theory actually use during its Hamiltonian evolution? For a UV/IR-regularised classical scalar field, we address this question directly at the level of phase-space dynamics by…
Calculations of high-energy processes involving the production of a large number of particles in weakly-coupled quantum field theories have previously signaled the need for novel non-perturbative behavior or even new physical phenomena. In…
We revisit certain subtleties of renormalization that arise when one derives a low-energy effective action by integrating out the heavy fields of a more complete theory. Usually these subtleties are circumvented by matching some physical…
We discuss the phase structure of a higher derivative four-fermion model in four dimensions in curved spacetime in frames of the $\frac{1}{N_c}$-expansion. First, we evaluate in our model the effective potential of two composite scalars in…
In this paper, we investigate the dynamical constraints imposed on the UV theory when it develops an emergent symmetry in the infrared with mixed 't Hooft anomalies. We demonstrate that, under certain conditions, the UV theory must contain…
We construct, for the first time, an off-shell supersymmetric continuous spin gauge theory in 4-dimensional Minkowski spacetime, in both constrained and unconstrained Lagrangian formulations. As an extension to the on-shell description [1],…
Complex mass poles, or ghost poles, are present in the Hartree-Fock solution of the Schwinger-Dyson equation for the nucleon propagator in renormalizable models with Yukawa-type meson-nucleon couplings, as shown many years ago by Brown,…
We propose a new class of higher derivative scalar-tensor theories without the Ostrogradsky's ghost instabilities. The construction of our theory is originally motivated by a scalar field with spacelike gradient, which enables us to fix a…
We study a class of perturbative scalar quantum field theories where dynamics is characterized by Lorentz-invariant or Lorentz-breaking non-local operators of fractional order and the underlying spacetime has a varying spectral dimension.…
We derive the one-loop beta functions for a theory of gravity with generic action containing up to four derivatives. The calculation is done in arbitrary dimension and on an arbitrary background. The special cases of three, four, near four,…