Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-theoretical-physics-ii-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2016/paper-1/4/a/solution
Past exam of the theoretical physics II course of the University of Cambridge 2016 Paper 1 4 a Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-20
A Klein-Gordon solution is second order in time: both and are needed as initial data. Its free modes have both signs of frequency,This differs from the first-order Schrödinger evolution of a fixed one-particle wavefunction.
Moreover, does not generally obey the required probability continuity equation. The conserved Klein-Gordon density is proportional toup to a positive conventional constant. A pure positive-frequency mode gives and a negative-frequency mode gives . This density is not positive definite and cannot be a universal position probability density.
For a free field, one can choose a positive-frequency subspace with a positive integrated inner product. Time-dependent backgrounds generally mix it with the negative-frequency subspace, so simply deleting the latter is not dynamically consistent. In quantum field theory the complex Klein-Gordon field instead has particle and antiparticle sectors; its conserved current is interpreted as charge current, and creation or annihilation of pairs need not fit a fixed-particle-number wavefunction. These are limitations of the naive single-particle interpretation, not a failure of the relativistic field equation.
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