The Higgs model with a complex ghost pair

Abstract

A higher derivative term is introduced in the kinetic energy of the Higgs lagrangian in the minimal Standard Model. A logically consistent and finite field theory is obtained when some excitations of the Higgs field are quantized with indefinite metric in the Hilbert space. The Landau ghost phenomenon of the ponventional triviality problem is replaced by the state vectors of a complex ghost pair at a finite mass scale with observable physical consequences. It is shown that the ghost states exhibit unusual resonance properties and correspond to a complex conjugate pair of Pauli-Villars regulator masses in the euclidean path integral formulation of the theory. An argument is given that microscopic acausality effects associated with the ghost pair remain undetectable in scattering processes with realistic wave packets, and the S-matrix should exhibit unitarity in the observable sector of the Hilbert space.