Past exam of the theoretical physics II course of the University of Cambridge / 2016 / Paper 1 / 4 / a / Solution

A Klein-Gordon solution is second order in time: both $\Psi$ and ${\partial }_t\Psi$ 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, $|\Psi {|}^2$ 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 $+2\omega |\Psi {|}^2$ and a negative-frequency mode gives $-2\omega |\Psi {|}^2$. 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.