Canonical transformations in a higher-derivative field theory

Abstract

It has been suggested that the chiral symmetry can be implemented only in classical Lagrangians containing higher covariant derivatives of odd order. Contrary to this belief, it is shown that one can construct an exactly soluble two-dimensional higher-derivative fermionic quantum field theory containing only derivatives of even order whose classical Lagrangian exhibits chiralgauge invariance. The original field solution is expressed in terms of usual Dirac spinors through a canonical transformation, whose generating function allows the determination of the new Hamiltonian. It is emphasized that the original and transformed Hamiltonians are different because the mapping from the old to the new canonical variables depends explicitly on time. The violation of cluster decomposition is discussed and the general Wightman functions satisfying the positive-definiteness condition are obtained.