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Who You Gonna Call? Runaway Ghosts, Higher Derivatives and Time-Dependence in EFTs

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arxiv 1404.2236 v1 pith:MLY7EZPU submitted 2014-04-08 gr-qc astro-ph.COhep-th

Who You Gonna Call? Runaway Ghosts, Higher Derivatives and Time-Dependence in EFTs

classification gr-qc astro-ph.COhep-th
keywords eftsfieldonlyrunawaysituationssolutionsactionaddresses
verification ladder T0 review T1 audit T2 compute T3 formal T4 reserved
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We briefly review the formulation of effective field theories (EFTs) in time-dependent situations, with particular attention paid to their domain of validity. Our main interest is the extent to which solutions of the EFT capture the dynamics of the full theory. For a simple model we show by explicit calculation that the low-energy action obtained from a sensible UV completion need not take the restrictive form required to obtain only second-order field equations, and we clarify why runaway solutions are nevertheless typically not a problem for the EFT. Although our results will not be surprising to many, to our knowledge they are only mentioned tangentially in the EFT literature, which (with a few exceptions) largely addresses time-independent situations.

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Cited by 1 Pith paper

Reviewed papers in the Pith corpus that reference this work. Sorted by Pith novelty score.

  1. The Status of Single Scalar Field Dark Energy

    astro-ph.CO 2026-07 conditional novelty 4.5

    Cosmological data can constrain only a handful of EFT parameters for single-scalar dark energy; extended models show modest preference over Λ but remain underdetermined and challenged by fifth forces and screening.