Asymptotic Quantum Dynamics of Ghost Fields

Abstract:The dressed propagator of a ghost coupled to ordinary fields develops a pair of complex conjugate poles in the first Riemann sheet above the multi-particle threshold. We study the implications of this pole structure for the asymptotic field and its negative-norm one-particle state. Within the operator formalism of local quantum field theory, we show that certain quadratic couplings between the ghost field and the composite field of the multi-particle state persist at asymptotic times. These induce quantum interference effects that render the negative-norm one-particle state non-orthogonal to a superposition of positive-norm multi-particle states. Consequently, no free asymptotic one-particle ghost state exists, while the true free asymptotic states have zero norm and hence vanishing localization probability. The real and imaginary parts of the complex mass admit a clear physical interpretation; in particular, the inverse imaginary part sets the timescale for the onset of non-orthogonality. A freely propagating ghost is therefore confined to time intervals much shorter than its inverse width, so that a detector can never observe an isolated ghost particle asymptotically. Open questions and potential applications are discussed in the conclusions.

25 pages + references; 2 figures. V2: minor changes; version published in JHEP

arXiv:2605.29047 [hep-th]

(or arXiv:2605.29047v2 [hep-th] for this version)

https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2605.29047 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite

https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP10%282026%29035 Focus to learn more DOI(s) linking to related resources

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