Ghost Theories Research Articles

Making sense of ghosts

Ghosts have been a stumbling block in the development of a UV complete quantum field theory for gravity. We discuss how difficulties associated with ghosts are overcome in the context of 0+1d QFT. Obtaining a probability interpretation is the key issue, and for this we discuss how an appropriate inner product can be constructed to define a sensible Born rule. Ghost theories are intrinsically unitary and perturbatively stable. They can also display nonperburbative stability even when the corresponding normal theory does not. The spectra and propagators are numerically obtained at both weak and strong coupling. Normalizable wave functions are obtained for the energy eigenstates and they show a violation of normal parity. We discuss connections to PT-symmetric quantum mechanics.

유교 성리학에서 귀신을 理로 볼 수 있는가 -氣의 소멸과 불멸의 理를 통한 새로운 귀신론 모색-

This paper suggests a reexamination and a new understanding of the Gui-Shen(鬼神) theory within Confucian Neo-Confucianism. The text is based on the concept of the extinction of Qi and the immortal Li. Traditional Neo-Confucianism considers Gui-Shen(鬼 神) to be the persisting Qi after death, influenced decisively by Zhu-Xi. In other words, it is believed that responsive Qi continues for a while after human death. This article, after presenting several issues with the existing 'Gui-Shen theory,' proposes an alternative view that considers Gui-Shen as Li. It emphasizes the Chung-brothers(二程)' stance, which sees Gui-Shen as 'traces of harmony(造化之迹),' differing from Zhu-Xi. The Chung brothers never specifically identified Gui-Shen as Qi. Despite negative or vague reservations about Gui-Shen, the academic community readily accepted Zhu-Xi's Gui-Shen theory. However, regarding the dispersion of Qi, the Chung brothers asserted its disappearance, while Zhu Xi believed it could linger for some time after death, revealing a subtle difference in their positions. Nevertheless, both shared the idea that dispersed Qi ultimately ends in nothing with no further explanation. In this paper, 'traces of harmony' are considered as traces left by the dissipation of Qi, attempting a hermeneutic shift that when a human dies, Qi dissipates soon thereafter and remains as 'traces of life', immortalized as Li, representing a past that has passed. In modern terms, this Li can be seen as an information pattern left by a deceased person within the world. The 'Li as the past,' left behind by someone who has departed from this world through the traces of their life, always rides upon the 'Qi of the present moment.' Thus, those who remain can be seen as considering the deceased as if they are still living, projecting their presence forward. Additionally, the 'Li(理)'s Ghost theory attempts to provide a clue to 'overcoming the problem of extinction of existence', left unfinished by the Chung brothers and Zhu-Xi, through 'Li returning to Taiji(太極)'. This connects with <Taiji, which sums up all Li>, rather than Gui-Shen as a posthumous being. The author suggests that the religiosity of Confucianism is not found in ancestral rites for ancestors[Gui-Shen] who exist after death, but rather in the 'non-religious religion' discovered in <daily embodiment of Taiji(太極)/Heavenly principles(天理)>. This proposal aims to align with the core nature of Confucianism while prioritizing 'service to people' over 'service to Gui-Shen' and 'life in this world' over 'after death', reflecting an attempt to better capture Confucius's original intent.

The Theory of Ghosts and Gods: A Comparative Study of White Deer Plain and One Hundred Years of Solitude

The Theory of Ghosts and Gods: A Comparative Study of White Deer Plain and One Hundred Years of Solitude

Anti-Instability of Complex Ghost

Abstract We argue that Lee–Wick’s complex ghost appearing in any higher derivative theory is stable and its asymptotic field exists. It may be more appropriate to call it “anti-unstable”, in the sense that the more the ghost "decays" into lighter ordinary particles, the larger the probability that the ghost remains as itself becomes. This is explicitly shown by analyzing the two-point functions of the ghost Heisenberg field which is obtained as an exact result in the N → ∞ limit in a massive scalar ghost theory with light O(N)-vector scalar matter. The anti-instability is a consequence of the fact that the poles of the complex ghost propagator are located on the physical sheet in the complex plane of four-momentum squared. This should be contrasted with the case of the ordinary unstable particle, whose propagator has no pole on the physical sheet.

A Note on “Demediation”: From Book Art to Transmedia Storytelling

This article discusses two opposite meanings of the concept of “demediation”: on the one hand, the very specific and strongly materializing reading given by Garrett Stewart, who coined the notion in an essay on book art qua visual art; on the other hand, the general and more intuitive reading of the term, as sometimes used in the broader debate on digital culture as immaterialization. Putting a strong emphasis on the (broad) notions of materiality and medium-specificity, the article offers a critique of certain immaterializing tendencies in transmedia storytelling theory, while ending with the brief presentation of an example (the collaborative network Général Instin) that tackles, within the framework of ghost theory and dust theory, the dialectic relationship of materiality and immateriality.

Weak ghost scattering with stochastic electromagnetic beams

We generalize the theory of ghost scattering with scalar incoherent light sources to the case of stochastic electromagnetic beams under the first-order Born approximation. We derive the expressions for the correlation of intensity fluctuations of the far-zone scattered fields and use them to study the properties of the scatterers. When the incident beam belongs to the class of electromagnetic Gaussian Schell-model beams, we discuss the dependence of ghost scattering results on the parameters such as the coherence lengths, source widths, polarization amplitudes, and degree of coherence. We find under the condition of linear polarized incident beams the scalar ghost scattering results can be retrieved, while the deviation from linear polarization may significantly distort the electromagnetic ghost scattering results.

From Tuxedo to Gown: Dietrich's Haunted Dressing Room(s)

From Tuxedo to GownDietrich's Haunted Dressing Room(s) Bridget Sundin (bio) The Haunted Queer Body—An Introduction Although many feminist film scholars have written about Marlene Dietrich's body through the lens of feminist theory, psychoanalysis, and semiotics—particularly in the 1990s1—there is a current gap in performance studies literature regarding ways in which Dietrich's always already femme fatale body is haunted not only by her celebrity, but by her previous roles as a stage cabaret performer, which contain explicitly queer content. My essay joins the ongoing conversation about queer embodiment by braiding together three strands of theory in regard to Marlene Dietrich's theatrical performances on screen: performance phenomenology, haunting/ghosting, and queer futurity. In order to create a fuller understanding of the potential of the queer body to resist, subvert, invent, and become, I position the dressing room as both a metaphorical and literal space of transformation. This article focuses on Marlene Dietrich's queer female embodiment and her theatrical use of tuxedo-and gown-drag, specifically situating this theatrical site of gender transformation to be the dressing room space in Josef von Sternberg's 1930 film Morocco.2 To theorize Dietrich's queer-haunted embodiment in this space, I lean on Marvin Carlson's theory of ghosts and hauntedness as a method for grounding the intertextuality of Dietrich's body as she changes from tuxedo to gown.3 I utilize my own performative queer voice in this essay as a deliberate addition to the academic archive. Embodied experiences, particularly those of marginalized populations, have historically been omitted from the archive.4 By discussing Dietrich's queer embodiment using my own queer embodied voice, [End Page 109] I join scholars who are also creating new forms of theorizing queer embodiment as well as creating new methods of queer historiography. The Dressing Room: A Haunted (Queer) Space for a Haunted (Queer) Body Have you been in a dressing room before? Can you remember how it looks? How it smells? Can you go a little further and feel backward5 affectively through time to an instance when you sat at a mirror putting on stage makeup, glancing over at a bouquet of flowers an admirer sent you, and maybe—if you try hard enough—can you even read the little rectangular card that says, "Break a leg!"? As I begin the body of my essay, I hope you are with me in this dressing room where the power of potential transformation buzzes in the air. Yes, there is a particularly embodied and heightened energy that takes place in a dressing room prior to a performance that involves a performer managing material objects and harnessing an array of converging internal conditions before taking the stage. The dressing room is a space unlike other theatrical spaces, in which bodies can transform into beings that have only existed in the imagination. It is here that audiences and performers alike expect the actor's embodiment to shift from ordinary to extraordinary through the use of costuming and makeup. Depending on the theatre's architecture and/or the context of a performance itself, a dressing room experience can run a wide range. A performer may encounter everything from a no-frills makeshift curtain hung from PVC pipe in an offstage corner next to the prop table to a luxurious private dressing room complete with upscale furniture and warm, cozy lighting. As a performer moves incrementally toward the heart of a performance—from the street outside, through the stage door, into the dressing room, then off to the wings, and finally onto the stage itself—an actor uses these spatial markers to transition from their personal identity into the identity taken on in the performance onstage. The average person does not often (or ever) see this journey toward the stage. However, Marlene Dietrich starred in many films that grant us access to this journey. In these films, audiences are allowed a glimpse at such a theatrical transformation as layers are peeled back from both the on-and off-stage embodiment of a cabaret performer. It seems only fitting at this time to invite the ghost of Marlene Dietrich, dressed as Amy...

A Comparative Study on the ghost theory of Joseon Dynasty Neo-Confucianism

A Comparative Study on the ghost theory of Joseon Dynasty Neo-Confucianism

Theory of ghost scattering with biphoton states

We show how quantum entangled biphoton states can be used to realize ghost scattering, a nonlocal scheme to obtain scattering information of an unknown object through the correlation measurement of the scattering photons in two different optical paths. We present a framework to describe the biphoton ghost scattering process from the T-matrix formula of the scattering theory. We find the scattering information of a test object can be retrieved from either the test arm or the reference arm. By adjusting the biphoton states, the ghost scattering patterns may be varied from the scattering pattern of the object in the test arm to the object in the reference arm.

Nação e império: Agostinho da Silva e as festas do Espírito Santo

The Portuguese philosopher Agostinho da Silva is the author of a diversified and singular body of work. One of the central aspectsof his thought is related to his prophetic interpretation of Holy Ghost festas as a defining trait of Portuguese culture. This paper examines Agostinho da Silva’s “Holy Ghost theory”. It demons- trates how it is structured around topics such as medievalism and providentialism, which have been important on elite discourses on Portuguese national identity. It also shows how his “Holy Ghost theory” relies upon the central role given to folk culture and to the Portuguese empire in the thematization of the nation. Finally, it relates Agostinho da Silva’s interpretation of the festas to the role that “myths of ethnic election” and feelings of national ressentiment associated with the critique of modernity, play in nation-building discourses.

由 《漂海録》 看中国文化传承的分析

Cultural heritage means a great lot to a nation's social system and its people's behavior consciousness and plays an important role in its self-development and improvement. It is essential for a nation's self-education and renewal. Improper cultural heritage will be disastrous because it may fall a nation into a loss of terrible chaos. Only the proper cultural heritage can make it always self-awaking, self-correcting and remaining vital in life. This paper, from the perspective of Choi Bu's Pyohaerok, makes a thorough analysis of the unbalance heritage of Chinese ancient culture for thousands of years. For example, many fine traditions gradually vanished in our actual life or only take half their life in heritage nowadays, such as our ancient broad and profound Confucian etiquette, ancient exquisite brocade art and architecture, ancient advanced ship-building technology and many other advanced numerous technological inventions; however, too much unwanted cultural rubbish keeps constant prevailing and takes repeated successions in the life, such as the heavy-form-and-light-content management mode, borrowing power to do evil, neglecting technological inventions long time and generally believing in ghost theory,etc.. This paper mainly focuses on the partial successions of the bad cultural heritage and its bad influence on the country, and concludes that it is just that that makes the country more and more backward. Therefore, the paper makes some pondering over these issues and proposes some related ideas of country-building to attract others participation to deal with them.

Theory of ghost scattering with incoherent light sources

Inspired by the idea of ghost imaging, we propose a ghost scattering scheme to study light scattering with incoherent light sources through the nonlocal correlation measurement of the differential scattering cross-section fluctuations in two different optical paths. We present a rigorous formal theory to describe the ghost scattering process. Also we have derived a simple and closed-form ghost scattering formula within the first-order Born approximation which is particularly suited for weak scatterers. We find that the scattering information of a test scatterer can be obtained by using only a single-pixel detector in the corresponding optical path through the nonlocal correlation measurement with the help of another reference path.

Introduction

In 2012, Indigenous science fiction anthology Walking Clouds challenged critics and artists alike to recognize qualities lauded in contemporary experimental sf as core elements of ancient Indigenous epistemologies. Walking Clouds asked critics to recognize Indigenous origins of sf tropes, and it asked Indigenous artists to write more sf.That call has been answered by an impressive array of new publications, reprints, conference and journal CFPs, fresh sf stories that renew venerable traditions, old stories retold anew, short films and media explosions ranging from comic books, video games, board games, and graphic arts to music and new media conjurations.This special issue of Extrapolation brings together ten diverse contributors who extend praxis of Indigenous Futurisms by drawing our attention to practitioners whose work we may recognize from previous venues, or whose contributions we might be receiving for first time.The essays collected here explore discoveries, in contrast to sf template of discovery. Indigenous Futurisms is not about chronicling many instances of mainstream sf that borrow victimized noble savage trope in order to relive wild-west fantasies, nor to offer contrition about past injustices, however well mannered. Maanoo. Our colleague John Rieder's 2008 study Colonialism and Emergence of Science Fiction remains seminal scholarly redaction of ironic (post)colonial theories that perpetuate colonial gaze while bearing witness to Indigenous presence in sf.First in our collection of thought pieces on Indigenous Futurisms, Andrea Hairston challenges us to examine our feelings about ghost phenomena-those uncanny presences that we occasionally feel but cannot rationally categorize. Hairston professes that she is futurist speculating on disappeared history. After offering a considered historical record of ghost theories, she makes a satisfying assessment: Ghosts are an embodiment of invisible forces from a past that hasn't gone anywhere. Set on this path, it is easy to see how contemplation of futurisms is another step in an inevitable direction, especially for peoples whose experience of an Apocalypse Now frustrates their chances of finding way out of no way to future. Using work of filmmakers Wanuri Kahiu (Kikuyu, Kenya) and Georgina Lightning (Cree, Canada), Hairston illustrates how artists who are haunted by a disappeared past while facing survival in a devastated present can reclaim possible futures through aesthetic creation.Hairston personalizes ghostly encounters as events that take place within mindscape. Andrew Uzendoski tackles trope in its most public and recognizable performance for Native American peoples, Ghost Dance. Focusing on Gerald Vizenor's (Anishinaabe) sf alternate history The Heirs of Columbus, Uzendoski invokes seminal Indigenous Futurisms concepts, including lawful, legal, and intertribal resistance on national and international stages, disinterest in theories that ironically perpetuate colonial gaze by expending energy on repudiating it, rejection of terminal creeds that make indians victims of their own devices, and propensity for Indigenous cultures to innovate and appropriate advanced technologies. In this way, argues Uzendoski, Vizenor is able to transform our focus on a relic of Native pasts into reflection on sovereignty of the tribal republic of Ghost Dance.David Higgins widens Indigenous Futurisms net to capture compatibilities among Vizenor, Leslie Marmon Silko (Laguna Pueblo), and Diane Glancy (Cherokee). The concept of survivance is another sine qua non of Indigenous Futurisms, and Higgins provides an informed overview, contextualizing survivance in theories of victimhood. Survivance asserts Native presence and pushes back against assumption that only historical identity available to indians in a post-Manifest Destiny world is that of victim. …

Bosonic Ghosts at c = 2 as a Logarithmic CFT

Motivated by Wakimoto free field realisations, the bosonic ghost system of central charge $c=2$ is studied using a recently proposed formalism for logarithmic conformal field theories. This formalism addresses the modular properties of the theory with the aim being to determine the (Grothendieck) fusion coefficients from a variant of the Verlinde formula. The key insight, in the case of bosonic ghosts, is to introduce a family of parabolic Verma modules which dominate the spectrum of the theory. The results include S-transformation formulae for characters, non-negative integer Verlinde coefficients, and a family of modular invariant partition functions. The logarithmic nature of the corresponding ghost theories is explicitly verified using the Nahm-Gaberdiel-Kausch fusion algorithm.

Local Government Chief Executives’ Everyday Hauntings: Towards a Theory of Organizational Ghosts

This paper develops a theory of organizational ghosts, a concept that describes the haunted and burdensome aspects of organizational life and in particular of leadership action. The concept of organizational ghosts is not offered as yet another metaphor, a lens through which to analyse particular organizations. Rather, I offer my discussion of ghosts as a theoretical concept that explains how inheritances of the past haunt the relations and struggles of the present. I tell a ghostly tale of the everyday leadership and learning practices of UK local government chief executives, and provide an exploration of organizational ghosts as a contribution to the growing interest in the action in the shadows, atmospheres, margins and boundaries of organizations. Drawing upon an ethnographic study of UK local councils, and embracing the multiplicity and heterogeneity of organizational ghosts, the paper considers the theoretical, political and ethical stakes involved in taking ghosts seriously. Its contribution is to show how ghosts are insinuated in organizations and to highlight leaders as figures who are both willing agents and uneasy hosts of hauntings, and to point to the mediating role of leaders in handling confrontations between the past, the present and the future.

Theoretical prediction of cosmological constant Λ in Veneziano ghost theory of QCD

Based on the Veneziano ghost theory of QCD, we predict the cosmological constant Л, which is related to energy density of cosmological vacuum by \( \Lambda = \frac{{8\pi G}} {3}\rho _\Lambda \). In the Veneziano ghost theory, the vacuum energy density ρЛ is expressed by absolute value of the product of quark vacuum condensate and quark current mass: \( \rho _\Lambda = \frac{{2N_f H}} {{m_{\eta '} }}c|m_q | \). We calculate the quark local vacuum condensates 〈0|: \( \bar q \)q: |0〉 by solving Dyson-Schwinger Equations for a fully dressed confining quark propagator Sf (p) with an effective gluon propagator Gµνab (q). The quark current mass mq is predicted by use of chiral perturbation theory. Our theoretical result of Л, with the resulting 〈0|: 471-4q: |0〉 = −(235 MeV)3 and light quark current mass mq ≃ 3.29–6.15 MeV, is in a good agreement with the observable of the Л ≈ 10−52 m−2 used widely in a great amount of literatures.

Recovering Missing Slices of the Discrete Fourier Transform Using Ghosts

The discrete Fourier transform (DFT) underpins the solution to many inverse problems commonly possessing missing or unmeasured frequency information. This incomplete coverage of the Fourier space always produces systematic artifacts called Ghosts. In this paper, a fast and exact method for deconvolving cyclic artifacts caused by missing slices of the DFT using redundant image regions is presented. The slices discussed here originate from the exact partitioning of the Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) space, under the projective Discrete Radon Transform, called the discrete Fourier slice theorem. The method has a computational complexity of O(n log(2) n) (for an n=N×N image) and is constructed from a new cyclic theory of Ghosts. This theory is also shown to unify several aspects of work done on Ghosts over the past three decades. This paper concludes with an application to fast, exact, non-iterative image reconstruction from a highly asymmetric set of rational angle projections that give rise to sets of sparse slices within the DFT.

Prediction of Cosmological Constant Λ in Veneziano Ghost Theory of QCD

Based on the Veneziano ghost theory of QCD, we estimate the cosmological constant Λ, which is related to the vacuum energy density, , by =8πG . In the recent Veneziano ghost theory is given by the absolute value of the product of the local quark condensate and quark current mass: =(2NfH/m)*c|mq＜0|:qq:|0>|.By solving Dyson-Schwinger Equations for a dressed quark propagator, we found the local quark condensate ; -(235 MeV)3, the generally accepted value. The quark current mass is mq 4.0 Mev. This gives the same result for as found by previous authors, which is somewhat larger than the observed value. However, when we make use of the nonlocal quark condensate, =g(x), with g(x) estimated from our previous work, we find Λ is in a good agreement with the observations.

南孝溫｢鬼神論｣의 문체 특성

南孝溫｢鬼神論｣의 문체 특성

NONPERTURBATIVE QUANTIZATION OF PHANTOM AND GHOST THEORIES: RELATING DEFINITE AND INDEFINITE REPRESENTATIONS

We investigate the nonperturbative quantization of phantom and ghost degrees of freedom by relating their representations in definite and indefinite inner product spaces. For a large class of potentials, we argue that the same physical information can be extracted from either representation. We provide a definition of the path integral for these theories, even in cases where the integrand may be exponentially unbounded, thereby removing some previous obstacles to their nonperturbative study. We apply our results to the study of ghost fields of Pauli–Villars and Lee–Wick type, and we show in the context of a toy model how to derive, from an exact nonperturbative path integral calculation, previously ad hoc prescriptions for Feynman diagram contour integrals in the presence of complex energies. We point out that the pole prescriptions obtained in ghost theories are opposite to what would have been expected if one had added conventional i∊ convergence factors in the path integral.