Unitarity and microscopic acausality in a nonlocal theory

Abstract

We consider unitarity and causality in a higher-derivative theory of infinite order, where propagators fall off more quickly in the ultraviolet due to the presence of a transcendental entire function of the momentum. Like Lee-Wick theories, these field theories might provide new avenues for addressing the hierarchy problem; unlike Lee-Wick theories, tree-level propagators do not have additional poles corresponding to unobserved particles with unusual properties. We consider microscopic acausality in these nonlocal theories. The acausal ordering of production and decay vertices for ordinary resonant particles may provide a phenomenologically distinct signature for these models.