collaborators

6 papers

gr-qc2026

Disformal Maps: Classification and Singular Dynamics

Mohammad Ali Gorji, Pavel Jiroušek, Alexander Vikman +1

Being agnostic about the field content of a gravitational system, we consider a general disformal transformation of the metric, , on a four-dimensional Lore…

hep-th2026

Quantum mechanics with a ghost: Counterexamples to spectral denseness

Cédric Deffayet, Atabak Fathe Jalali, Aaron Held +2

We quantise integrable point-particle systems with opposite-sign kinetic terms and nontrivial interactions. Using methods from separability theory, we show that previously determin…

hep-th2026

Unitary Time Evolution and Vacuum for a Quantum Stable Ghost

Cédric Deffayet, Atabak Fathe Jalali, Aaron Held +2

We quantize a classically stable system of a harmonic oscillator polynomially coupled to a ghost with negative kinetic energy. We prove that due to an integral of motion with a pos…

gr-qc2026

On the Bondi accretion of a self-interacting complex scalar field

Dražen Glavan, Alexander Vikman, Tom Zlosnik

Scalar fields with a global U(1) symmetry often appear in cosmology and astrophysics. We study the spherically-symmetric, stationary accretion of such a classical field onto a Schw…

gr-qc2025

Causality and Stability from Acoustic Geometry

Ignacy Sawicki, Georg Trenkler, Alexander Vikman

In scalar-tensor theories with derivative interactions, backgrounds spontaneously break local Lorentz invariance. We study the motion of perturbations of the scalar, "phonons", on…

hep-th2025

Ghostly interactions in (1+1) dimensional classical field theory

Cédric Deffayet, Aaron Held, Shinji Mukohyama +1

We investigate the classical stability of two coupled scalar fields with opposite-sign kinetic terms evolving in 1+1 dimensional Minkowski spacetime. In the first part, we characte…