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Hauptverfasser: Felski, Alexander, Fring, Andreas, Turner, Bethan
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2025
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Online-Zugang:https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.07869
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author Felski, Alexander
Fring, Andreas
Turner, Bethan
author_facet Felski, Alexander
Fring, Andreas
Turner, Bethan
contents We investigate the Pais-Uhlenbeck (PU) model, a paradigmatic example of a higher time-derivative theory, by identifying the Lie symmetries of its associated fourth-order dynamical equation. Exploiting these symmetries in conjunction with the model's Bi-Hamiltonian structure, we construct distinct Poisson bracket formulations that preserve the system's dynamics. Amongst other possibilities, this allow us to recast the PU model in a positive definite manner, offering a solution to the long-standing problem of ghost instabilities. Furthermore, we systematically explore a family of transformations that reduce the PU model to equivalent first-order, higher-dimensional systems. Finally we examine the impact on those transformations by adding interaction terms of potential form to the PU model and demonstrate how they usually break the Bi-Hamiltonian structure. Our approach yields a unified framework for interpreting and stabilising higher time-derivative dynamics through a symmetry analysis in some parameter regime.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2505_07869
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Lie symmetries and ghost-free representations of the Pais-Uhlenbeck model
Felski, Alexander
Fring, Andreas
Turner, Bethan
Mathematical Physics
Quantum Physics
We investigate the Pais-Uhlenbeck (PU) model, a paradigmatic example of a higher time-derivative theory, by identifying the Lie symmetries of its associated fourth-order dynamical equation. Exploiting these symmetries in conjunction with the model's Bi-Hamiltonian structure, we construct distinct Poisson bracket formulations that preserve the system's dynamics. Amongst other possibilities, this allow us to recast the PU model in a positive definite manner, offering a solution to the long-standing problem of ghost instabilities. Furthermore, we systematically explore a family of transformations that reduce the PU model to equivalent first-order, higher-dimensional systems. Finally we examine the impact on those transformations by adding interaction terms of potential form to the PU model and demonstrate how they usually break the Bi-Hamiltonian structure. Our approach yields a unified framework for interpreting and stabilising higher time-derivative dynamics through a symmetry analysis in some parameter regime.
title Lie symmetries and ghost-free representations of the Pais-Uhlenbeck model
topic Mathematical Physics
Quantum Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.07869