Generalized ghost-free propagators in nonlocal field theories

Abstract: In this paper we present an iterative method to generate an infinite class of new nonlocal field theories whose propagators are ghost-free. We first examine the scalar field case and show that the pole structure of such generalized propagators possesses the standard two derivative pole and in addition can contain complex conjugate poles which, however, do not spoil at least tree level unitarity as the optical theorem is still satisfied. Subsequently, we define analogous propagators for the fermionic sector which is also devoid of unhealthy degrees of freedom. As a third case, we apply the same construction to gravity and define a new set of theories whose graviton propagators around the Minkowski background are ghost-free. Such a wider class also includes nonlocal theories previously studied, and Einstein's general relativity as a peculiar limit. Moreover, we compute the linearized gravitational potential generated by a static point-like source for several gravitational theories belonging to this new class and show that the nonlocal nature of gravity regularizes the singularity at the origin.