Canonical formalism and quantization of perturbative sector of higher-derivative theories

The theories defined by Lagrangians containing second time derivative are considered. It is shown that if the second derivatives enter only the terms multiplied by coupling constant one can consistently define the perturbative sector via Dirac procedure. The possibility of introducing standard canonical variables is analysed in detail. The ambiguities in quantization procedure are pointed out.

K.Andrzejewski, K.Bolonek, J.Gonera, P.Maslanka · 2007