Higher derivative field theories with interactions raise serious doubts about their validity due to severe energy instabilities. In many cases the implementation of a direct perturbation treatment to excise the dangerous negative-energies from a higher derivative field theory may lead to violations of Lorentz and other symmetries. In this work we study a perturbative formulation for higher derivative field theories that allows the construction of a low-energy effective field theory being a genuine perturbations over the ordinary-derivative theory and having a positive-defined Hamiltonian. We show that some discrete symmetries are recovered in the low-energy effective theory when the perturbative method to reduce the negative-energy degrees of freedom from the higher derivative theory is applied. In particular, we focus on the higher derivative Maxwell-Chern-Simons model which is a Lorentz invariant and parity-odd theory in 2+1 dimensions. The parity violation arises in the effective action of QED$_3$ as a quantum correction from the massive fermionic sector. We obtain the effective field theory which remains Lorentz invariant, but parity invariant to the order considered in the perturbative expansion.
After dimensional reduction to three dimensions, the lowest order effective actions for pure gravity, M-theory and the Bosonic string admit an enhanced symmetry group. In this paper we initiate study of how this enhancement is affected by the inclusion of higher derivative terms. In particular we show that the coefficients of the scalar fields associated to the Cartan subalgebra are given by weights of the enhanced symmetry group.
Motivated by BRST theory, we study generalized symmetries and supersymmetries depending on derivatives of dynamic variables in a most general setting. We state the first variational formula and conservation laws for higher order Lagrangian systems on fiber bundles and graded manifolds under generalized symmetries and supersymmetries of any order. Cohomology of nilpotent generalized supersymmetries are considered.
Higher-derivative theories of free higher-spin fields are investigated focusing on their symmetries. Generalizing familiar two-derivative constrained formulations, we first construct less-constrained Einstein-like and Maxwell-like higher-derivative actions. Then, we construct Weyl-like actions - the actions admitting constrained Weyl symmetries - with different numbers of derivatives. They are presented in a factorized form making use of Einstein-like and Maxwell-like tensors. The last (highest-derivative) member of the hierarchy of the Weyl-like actions coincides with the Fradkin-Tseytlin con…
Symmetries of non-maximal supergravities with higher-derivative corrections
Center for Joint Quantum Studies and Department of Physics, School of Science, Tianjin University（天津大学理学院物理系联合量子研究中心）；Peng Huanwu Center for Fundamental Theory（彭桓武基础理论中心）；Tianjin University（天津大学）
We consider scalar field theories invariant under extended shift symmetries consisting of higher order polynomials in the spacetime coordinates. These generalize ordinary shift symmetries and the linear shift symmetries of the galileons. We find Wess-Zumino Lagrangians which transform up to total derivatives under these symmetries, and which possess fewer derivatives per field and lower order equations of motion than the strictly invariant terms. In the non-relativistic context, where the extended shifts are purely spatial, these theories may describe multi-critical Goldstone bosons. In the re…
In the generalized Hamiltonian formalism by Dirac, the method of constructing the generator of local-symmetry transformations for systems with first- and second-class constraints (without restrictions on the algebra of constraints) is obtained from the requirement for them to map the solutions of the Hamiltonian equations of motion into the solutions of the same equations. It is proved that second-class constraints do not contribute to the transformation law of the local symmetry entirely stipulated by all the first-class constraints (and only by them). A mechanism of occurrence of higher deri…
Field theoretic models possessing a global internal fermionic shift symmetry are considered. When such a symmetry is realized locally, spin 3/2 fields appear naturally as gauge fields. Implementation of the gauging procedure requires not only the usual replacement of ordinary derivatives by covariant derivatives containing the spin 3/2 fields, but also the inclusion of additional monomials. The Higgs mechanism and the high energy Nambu-Goldstone fermion equivalence theorem are explicitly demonstrated.
We extend our recently-proposed formalism for calculating anomalies of global and gauge symmetries using the Covariant Derivative Expansion to include a general class of operators that can appear in relativistic Effective Field Theories (EFTs). This allows us to prove that EFT operators involving general scalar, vector, and tensor couplings to fermion bilinears only give rise to irrelevant anomalies, which can be removed by an appropriate choice of counterterms, thereby confirming the absence of new constraints from anomaly cancellation on the Standard Model EFT.
For a field theory that is invariant under diffeomorphisms there is a subtle interplay between symmetries, conservation laws and the phase space of the theory. The natural language for describing these ideas is that of differential forms and both differential forms on space-time and differential forms on the infinite dimensional space of solutions of the equations of motion of the field theory play an important role. There are exterior derivatives on both spaces and together they weave a double differential complex which captures the cohomology of the theory. This is important in the definitio…
Conformal fields in flat space-time of even dimension greater than or equal to four are studied. Second-derivative formulation for spin 0,1,2 conformal bosonic fields and first-derivative formulation for spin 1/2,3/2 conformal fermionic fields are developed. For the spin 1,3/2,2 conformal fields, we obtain gauge invariant Lagrangians and the corresponding gauge transformations. Gauge symmetries are realized by involving Stueckelberg fields and auxiliary fields. Realization of global conformal boost symmetries is obtained. Modified Lorentz and de Donder gauge conditions are introduced. Ordinary…
In ${\cal N}=5, 6, 8$ supergravities there are hidden symmetries of equations of motion, described by duality groups $SU(1,5), \, SO^*(12), \, E_{7(7)}$ respectively. UV divergences and known candidate counterterms violate the deformed duality symmetry current conservation. Extra higher derivative terms in the action are required to restore duality. We study the effect of a two-vector part of the counterterm for ${\cal N}\geq 5$ supergravities using the universality of the symplectic structure of extended supergravities. We construct a compact form of a deformed action with infinite number of …
When global symmetries are spontaneously broken in supersymmetric vacua, there appear quasi-Nambu-Goldstone (NG) fermions as superpartners of NG bosons. In addition to these, there can appear quasi-NG bosons in general. The quasi-NG bosons and fermions together with the NG bosons are organized into chiral multiplets. Kähler potentials of low-energy effective theories were constructed some years ago as supersymmetric nonlinear realizations. It is known that higher derivative terms in the superfield formalism often encounter with the auxiliary field problem; the auxiliary fields are acted by spa…
Conformal totally symmetric arbitrary spin bosonic fields in flat space-time of even dimension greater than or equal to four are studied. Second-derivative (ordinary-derivative) formulation for such fields is developed. We obtain gauge invariant Lagrangian and the corresponding gauge transformations. Gauge symmetries are realized by involving the Stueckelberg and auxiliary fields. Realization of global conformal boost symmetries on conformal gauge fields is obtained. Modified de Donder gauge condition and de Donder-Stueckelberg gauge condition are introduced. Using the de Donder-Stueckelberg g…
In this paper we discuss the (anti-)BRST symmetries and $W$-algebra of higher derivative theories of relativistic particles satisfying general gauge conditions. Using this formalism, the connection between the (anti-)BRST symmetries and $W$-algebra for the rigid relativistic particle is established. Incidentally, the full $W$-algebra emerges only when the anti-BRST transformations are considered in tandem with the BRST ones. Further, the BRST symmetry is made finite and coordinate-dependent. We show that such finite coordinate-dependent BRST symmetry changes the BRST invariant gauge-fixing fer…
In this paper we explicitly prove the invariance of the time-dependent string gravity Lagrangian with up to four derivatives under the global $O(d,d)$ symmetry.
In this paper we show that a quadratic lagrangian, with no constraints, containing ordinary time derivatives up to the order $m$ of $N$ dynamical variables, has $2mN$ symmetries consisting in the translation of the variables with solutions of the equations of motion. We construct explicitly the generators of these transformations and prove that they satisfy the Heisenberg algebra. We also analyse other specific cases which are not included in our previous statement: the Klein-Gordon lagrangian, $N$ Fermi oscillators and the Dirac lagrangian. In the first case, the system is described by an equ…
We study the dynamics of a generalized inflationary model in which both the scalar field and its derivatives are coupled to the gravity. We consider a general form of the nonminimal derivative coupling in order to have a complete treatment of the model. By expanding the action up to the second order in perturbation, we study the spectrum of the primordial modes of the perturbations. Also, by expanding the action up to the third order and considering the three point correlation functions, the amplitude of the non-Gaussianity of the primordial perturbations is studied both in equilateral and ort…
Higher Derivative (HD) Field Theories can be transformed into second order equivalent theories with a direct particle interpretation. In a simple model involving abelian gauge symmetries we examine the fate of the possible gauge fixings throughout this process. This example is a useful test bed for HD theories of gravity and provides a nice intuitive interpretation of the "third ghost" occurring there and in HD gauge theories when a HD gauge fixing is adopted.
We present a new method for completing higher derivative corrections for theories that exhibit duality symmetries under reduction. This proposal is based on the observation that duality symmetry in the reduced theory highly constrains the form of the unreduced theory. We apply this idea to closed bosonic string theory and complete the Riemann squared term to simply derive the known full tree-level effective action to order alpha'.
In the doubled field theory approach to string theory, the T-duality group is promoted to a manifest symmetry at the expense of replacing ordinary Riemannian geometry with generalised geometry on a doubled space. The local symmetries are then given by a generalised Lie derivative and its associated algebra. This paper constructs an analogous structure for M-theory. A crucial by-product of this is the derivation of the physical section condition for M-theory formulated in an extended space.
We consider the general higher derivative field theories of derived type. At free level, the wave operator of derived-type theory is a polynomial of the order $n\geq 2$ of another operator $W$ which is of the lower order. Every symmetry of $W$ gives rise to the series of independent higher order symmetries of the field equations of derived system. In its turn, these symmetries give rise to the series of independent conserved quantities. In particular, the translation invariance of operator $W$ results in the series of conserved tensors of the derived theory. The series involves $n$ independent…
A new method of abstracting the independent gauge invariances of higher derivative systems, recently introduced in [1], has been applied to higher derivative field theories. This has been discussed taking the extended Maxwell-Chern-Simons model as an example. A new Hamiltonian analysis of the model is provided. This Hamiltonian analysis has been used to construct the independent gauge generator. An exact mapping between the Hamiltonian gauge transformations and the U(1) symmetries of the action has been established.
We introduce an effective action for non-dissipative magnetohydrodynamics. A crucial guiding principle is the generalized global symmetry of electrodynamics, which naturally leads to introducing a "dual photon" as the degree of freedom responsible for the electromagnetic component of the fluid. The formalism includes additional degrees of freedom and symmetries which characterize the hydrodynamic regime. By suitably enhancing one of the symmetries, the theory becomes force-free electrodynamics. The symmetries furthermore allow to systematize local and non-local conserved helicities. We also di…
We continue the study of symmetries in the Lagrangian formalism of arbitrary order with the help of the so-called Anderson-Duchamp-Krupka equations. For the case of second-order equations and arbitrary vector fields we are able to establish a polynomial structure in the second-order derivatives. This structure is based on the some linear combinations of Olver hyper-Jacobians. We use as the main tools Fock space techniques and induction. This structure can be used to analyze Lagrangian systems with groups of Noetherian symmetries. As an illustration we analyze the case of Lagrangian equations w…
We define a natural generalized symmetry of the Yang-Mills equations as an infinitesimal transformation of the Yang-Mills field, built in a local, gauge invariant, and Poincaré invariant fashion from the Yang-Mills field strength and its derivatives to any order, which maps solutions of the field equations to other solutions. On the jet bundle of Yang-Mills connections we introduce a spinorial coordinate system that is adapted to the solution subspace defined by the Yang-Mills equations. In terms of this coordinate system the complete classification of natural symmetries is carried out in a st…
Galileon models arise in certain braneworld scenarios as modifications to General Relativity, and are also interesting as field theories in their own right. We show how the galileon model can be naturally generalized to include local gauge symmetries, by allowing for couplings to Yang-Mills fields. The resulting theories have at most second order spacetime derivatives in any representation of the gauge group, thereby avoiding Ostrogradski ghosts. We also extend the models to include curved space, and show how in that case we need to include non-minimal couplings between the galileons and the c…
We define a noncommutative Lorentz symmetry for canonical noncommutative spaces. The noncommutative vector fields and the derivatives transform under a deformed Lorentz transformation. We show that the star product is invariant under noncommutative Lorentz transformations. We then apply our idea to the case of actions obtained by expanding the star product and the fields taken in the enveloping algebra via the Seiberg-Witten maps and verify that these actions are invariant under these new noncommutative Lorentz transformations. We finally consider general coordinate transformations and show th…
Since Stephen Hawking discovered that black holes emit thermal radiation, black holes have become the theoretical laboratories for testing our ideas on quantum gravity. This dissertation is devoted to the study of singularities, the formation of black holes by gravitational collapse and the global structure of spacetime. All our investigations are in the context of a recently proposed approach to quantum gravity, which breaks Lorentz and diffeomorphism symmetries at very high energies.
Employing the coset approach we construct component actions for a superparticle moving in AdS$_3$ with $N{=}(2,0)$, $D{=}3$ supersymmetry partially broken to $N{=}2$, $d{=}1$. These actions may contain higher time-derivative terms, which are chosen to possess the same (super)symmetries as the free superparticle. In terms of the nonlinear-realization superfields, the component actions always take a simpler form when written in terms of covariant Cartan forms. We also consider in detail the reduction to the nonrelativistic case and construct the corresponding action a Newton-Hooke superparticle …
We derive together the exact local, covariant, continuous and off-shell nilpotent Becchi-Rouet-Stora-Tyutin (BRST) and anti-BRST symmetry transformations for the U(1) gauge field (A_μ), the (anti-)ghost fields ((\bar C)C) and the Dirac fields (ψ, \barψ) of the Lagrangian density of a four (3 + 1)-dimensional QED by exploiting a single restriction on the six (4, 2)-dimensional supermanifold. A set of four even spacetime coordinates x^μ(μ= 0, 1, 2, 3) and two odd Grassmannian variables θand \barθparametrize this six dimensional supermanifold. The new gauge invariant restriction on the above supe…
In this paper we present a detailed study of the quantum conservation laws for Toda field theories defined on the half plane in the presence of a boundary perturbation. We show that total derivative terms added to the currents, while irrelevant at the classical level, become important at the quantum level and in general modify significantly the quantum boundary conservation. We consider the first nontrivial higher--spin currents for the simply laced $a^{(1)}_n $ Toda theories: we find that the spin--three current leads to a quantum conserved charge only if the boundary potential is appropriate…
We show that various actions of topological conformal theories that were suggested recentely are particular cases of a general action. We prove the invariance of these models under transformations generated by nilpotent fermionic generators of arbitrary conformal dimension, $\Q$ and $\G$. The later are shown to be the $n^{th}$ covariant derivative with respect to ``flat abelian gauge field" of the fermionic fields of those models. We derive the bosonic counterparts $\W$ and $\R$ which together with $\Q$ and $\G$ form a special $N=2$ super $W_\infty$ algebra. The algebraic structure is discusse…
Superconformal methods are useful to build invariant actions in supergravity. We have a good insight in the possibilities of actions that are at most quadratic in spacetime derivatives, but insight in general higher-derivative actions is missing. Recently higher-derivative actions got more attention for several applications. One of these is the understanding of finiteness of loop computations in supergravities. Divergences can only occur if invariant counterterms or anomalies exist. One can wonder whether conformal symmetry might also play a role in this context. In order to construct higher-d…
Canonical analysis leading to formal quantisation of the higher derivative theories are considered. The first order formalism is adopted where all the configuration space variables along with their higher time derivatives are considered to be independent fields. A systematic algorithm of abstracting the independent gauge symmetries is developed which is an extension of the method developed by Banerjee et al. for the usual first order theories. For the massive relativistic particle model with curvature, we solve the mismatch in the no of independent gauge parameters and no of independent primar…
We study the leading irrelevant operators along the flat directions of certain supersymmetric theories. In particular, we focus on finite N=2 (including N=4) supersymmetric field theories in four dimensions and show that these operators are completely determined by the symmetries of the problem. This shows that they are generated only at one loop and are not renormalized beyond this order. An instanton computation in similar three dimensional theories shows that these terms are renormalized. Hence, the four dimensional non-renormalization theorem of these terms is not valid in three dimensions…
We investigate the four-derivative free Weyl action for two-column mixed-symmetry field that makes use of maximal gauge symmetries. In flat space, the action can be uniquely determined from gauge and Weyl (trace shift) symmetry requirements. We show that there is a smooth and unique deformation of the flat action to (A)dS which keeps the same amount of gauge symmetries. This action admits a factorization into two distinct two-derivative actions having gauge parameters of different Young diagrams. Hence, this factorization pattern naturally extends that of the Weyl actions of symmetric higher s…
The principles of a previously developed formalism for the covariant treatment of multi-scalar fields for which (as in a nonlinear sigma model) the relevant target space is not of affine type -- but curved -- are recapitulated. Their application is extended from ordinary harmonic models to a more general category of "harmonious" field models, with emphasis on cases in which the field is confined to a string or higher brane worldsheet, and for which the relevant internal symmetry group is non Abelian, so that the conditions for conservation of the corresponding charge currents become rather del…
In this paper, we compute the higher derivative amplitudes arising from shift symmetric-invariant actions for both the non-linear sigma model and the special galileon symmetries, and provide explicit expressions for their Lagrangians. We find that, beyond leading order, the equivalence between shift symmetries, enhanced single soft limits, and compatibility with the double copy procedure breaks down. In particular, we have shown that the most general even-point amplitudes of a colored-scalar satisfying the Kleiss-Kuijf (KK) and Bern-Carrasco-Johansson (BCJ) relations are compatible with the no…
In this article we derive the full interacting effective actions for supersymmetric D-branes in arbitrary bosonic type II supergravity backgrounds. The actions are presented in terms of component fields up to second order in fermions. As one expects, the actions are built from the supercovariant derivative operator and the $κ$-symmetry projector. The results take a compact and elegant form exhibiting $κ$-symmetry, as well as supersymmetry in a background with Killing spinors. We give the explicit transformation rules for these symmetries in all cases, including the M2-brane. As an example, we …
We study the symmetries of the post-recombination cosmological magnetohydrodynamical equations which describe the evolution of dark matter, baryons and magnetic fields in a self-consistent way. This is done both at the level of fluid equations and of Vlasov-Poisson-Maxwell equations in phase space. We discuss some consistency relations for the soft limit of the (n + 1)-correlator functions involving magnetic fields and matter overdensities. In particular, we stress that any violation of such consistency relations at equal-time would point towards an inflationary origin of the magnetic field.
Stress-energies for Fermi fields are derived from the principle of general covariance. This is done by developing a notion of Lie derivatives of spinors along arbitrary vector fields. A substantial theory of such derivatives was first introduced by Kosmann; here I show how an apparent conflict in the literature on this is due to a difference in the definitions of spinors, and that tracking the Lie derivative of the Infeld-van der Waerden symbol, as well as the spinor fields under consideration, gives a fuller picture of the geometry and leads to the Fermion stress-energy. The differences in th…
Ghost fields in quantum field theory have been a long-standing problem. Specifically, theories with higher derivatives involve ghosts that appear in the Hamiltonian in the form of linear momenta term, which is commonly known as the Ostrogradski ghost. Higher derivative theories may involve both types of constraints i.e. first class and second class. Interestingly, these higher derivative theories may have non-Hermitian Hamiltonian respecting $\mathcal{PT}-$symmetries. In this paper, we have considered the $\mathcal{PT}-$symmetric nature of the extended Maxwell-Chern-Simon's theory and employed…
Gauge symmetries remove unphysical states and guarantee that field theories are free from the pathologies associated with these states. In this work we find a set of general conditions that guarantee the removal of unphysical states in field theories describing interacting vector fields. These conditions are obtained through the extension of a mechanism for the emergence of gauge symmetries proposed in a previous article [C. Barceló et al. JHEP 10 (2016) 084] in order to account for non-Abelian gauge symmetries, and are the following: low-energy Lorentz invariance, emergence of massless vector…
We present the derivation of conserved tensors associated to higher-order symmetries in the higher derivative Maxwell Abelian gauge field theories. In our model, the wave operator of the higher derived theory is a $n$-th order polynomial expressed in terms of the usual Maxwell operator. Any symmetry of the primary wave operator gives rise to a collection of independent higher-order symmetries of the field equations which thus leads to a series of independent conserved quantities of derived system. In particular, by the extension of Noether's theorem, the spacetime translation invariance of the…
Free differential algebras (FDA's) provide an algebraic setting for field theories with antisymmetric tensors. The "presentation" of FDA's generalizes the Cartan-Maurer equations of ordinary Lie algebras, by incorporating p-form potentials. An extended Lie derivative along antisymmetric tensor fields can be defined, and used to recover a Lie algebra dual to the FDA, that encodes all the symmetries of the theory including those gauged by the p-forms. The general method is applied to the FDA of D=11 supergravity: the resulting dual Lie superalgebra contains the M-theory supersymmetry anticommuta…
In their simplest form, metric-like Lagrangians for higher-spin massless fields display constrained gauge symmetries, unless auxiliary fields are introduced or locality is foregone. Specifically, in its standard incarnation, gauge invariance of Maxwell-like Lagrangians relies on parameters with vanishing divergence. We propose an alternative form of the corresponding local symmetry involving unconstrained parameters of mixed-symmetry type, described by rectangular two-row Young diagrams and entering high-derivative gauge transformations. The resulting gauge algebra appears to be reducible and …
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 which (non)trivial classes of solutions this allows for. It is shown explicitly how Lorentz invariance avoids the propagation of "half" degrees of freedom. Moreover, for a large class of theories, we construct the field redefinitions and/or (extended) contact transformations that put the theory in a manifestly first order form. Finally, we identify which cla…
