Ghosts in higher derivative Maxwell-Chern-Simon's theory and $\mathcal{PT}-$symmetry

Abstract: Ghost fields in quantum field theory have been a long-standing problem. Specifically, theories with higher derivatives involve ghosts that appear in the Hamiltonian in the form of linear momenta term, which is commonly known as the Ostrogradski ghost. Higher derivative theories may involve both types of constraints i.e. first class and second class. Interestingly, these higher derivative theories may have non-Hermitian Hamiltonian respecting $\mathcal{PT}-$symmetries. In this paper, we have considered the $\mathcal{PT}-$symmetric nature of the extended Maxwell-Chern-Simon's theory and employed the second class constraints to remove the linear momenta terms causing the instabilities. We found that the removal is not complete rather conditions arise among the coefficients of the operator ${Q}$.