Anti-Instability of Complex Ghost

• Published in: Progress of theoretical and experimental physics Vol. 2024; no. 5
• Main Authors: Kubo, Jisuke, Kugo, Taichiro
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Oxford University Press 01.05.2024
• Subjects: Energy conservation; Physics
• ISSN: 2050-3911; 2050-3911
• DOI: 10.1093/ptep/ptae053

We argue that Lee–Wick’s complex ghost appearing in any higher derivative theory is stable and its asymptotic field exists. It may be more appropriate to call it “anti-unstable”, in the sense that the more the ghost "decays" into lighter ordinary particles, the larger the probability that the ghost remains as itself becomes. This is explicitly shown by analyzing the two-point functions of the ghost Heisenberg field which is obtained as an exact result in the N → ∞ limit in a massive scalar ghost theory with light O(N)-vector scalar matter. The anti-instability is a consequence of the fact that the poles of the complex ghost propagator are located on the physical sheet in the complex plane of four-momentum squared. This should be contrasted with the case of the ordinary unstable particle, whose propagator has no pole on the physical sheet.