 Solution

For a real free scalar field on a globally hyperbolic spacetime, takeThe Klein-Gordon equation has a well-posed initial-value problem on every Cauchy hypersurface. Its complex solution space carries the conserved Klein-Gordon inner product. Choose modes withand expandThe canonical commutation relations produce the bosonic Fock space, and $a_i|0⟩=0$ defines the chosen vacuum.

The choice of positive-frequency solutions is extra structure. In a time-dependent geometry there is no preferred time translation, so different choices mix $u_i$ with $u_i^{\ast }$ and give the vacuum ambiguity in a nonstationary spacetime. In a stationary spacetime, a timelike Killing vector field defines positive frequency by $i{\mathcal{L}}_K{u}_i={\omega }_i{u}_i$, ${\omega }_i>0$, and hence the preferred vacuum state in a stationary spacetime.

If the spacetime is stationary in the remote past and future, define normalized in- and out-modes there. Their Bogoliubov transformation isThe expected out-particle number in the in-vacuum isThus nonzero beta coefficients measure particle creation by the intervening time dependence.