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Reflection positivity in higher derivative scalar theories

High Energy Physics - Theory 2018-08-29 v1 Mathematical Physics math.MP

Abstract

Reflection positivity constitutes an integral prerequisite in the Osterwalder-Schrader reconstruction theorem which relates quantum field theories defined on Euclidean space to their Lorentzian signature counterparts. In this work we rigorously prove the violation of reflection positivity in a large class of free scalar fields with a rational propagator. This covers in particular higher-derivative theories where the propagator admits a partial fraction decomposition as well as degenerate cases including e.g. p^4 -type propagators.

Cite

@article{arxiv.1712.04308,
  title  = {Reflection positivity in higher derivative scalar theories},
  author = {Francesca Arici and Daniel Becker and Chris Ripken and Frank Saueressig and Walter D. van Suijlekom},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1712.04308},
  year   = {2018}
}

Comments

9 pages, 1 figure

R2 v1 2026-06-22T23:15:39.826Z