Dynamical systems with benign ghosts

Abstract: We consider finite and infinite-dimensional ghost-ridden dynamical systems whose Hamiltonians involve non positive definite kinetic terms. We point out the existence of three classes of such systems where the ghosts are benign, i.e. systems whose evolution is unlimited in time:(i) systems obtained from the variation of bounded-motion systems; (ii) systems describing motions over certain Lorentzian manifolds and (iii) higher-derivative models related to certain modified Korteweg--de Vries equations.