17–18 Dec 2025
Centre for Particle Theory
Europe/London timezone

Investigating an interacting 4-derivative scalar field theory

17 Dec 2025, 14:45
7m
Ph8 (Centre for Particle Theory)

Ph8

Centre for Particle Theory

Speaker

Maegan Anderson (University of Edinburgh)

Description

Higher-derivative QFT’s are famously non-unitary, they suffer with growing modes and negative-norm states reflecting the classical Ostrogradsky instability. In this talk, I will present an interacting model whose renormalisation group flow admits a special line of solutions. On this special line we find preliminary evidence that the theory may be perturbatively unitary.

Author

Maegan Anderson (University of Edinburgh)

Presentation materials