Benign vs. malicious ghosts in higher-derivative theories
By Andrei V. Smilga. 2004
136 citations recorded by the source corpus.
Abstract Interacting theories with higher-derivatives involve ghosts. They correspond to instabilities that display themselves at the classical level. We notice that comparatively “benign” mechanical higher-derivative systems exist, where the classical vacuum is stable with respect to small perturbations and the problems appear only at the nonperturbative level. We argue the existence of benign higher-derivative field theories which are stable with respect to small fluctuations with nonzero momenta. A particular example is the 6D N = 2 higher-derivative SYM theory, which is finite and unitary at the perturbative level. The instability with respect to small fluctuations of zero-momentum modes is always present, however.
Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics, Nuclear and High Energy Physics
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/372bc043579cebc8d01a05e6dc058e73a90cace8
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In Astronomy and Astrophysics
In Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics
In Nuclear and High Energy Physics
Citations in the corpus
- Spherically symmetric solutions in higher-derivative gravity (2015, background): “A related question, already at the classical level, is whether the interaction structure of the theory might even be such as to avoid the destabilisation of the vacuum by ghost-driven instabilities [7].”