Promote the mode expansion of a free field coefficients to annihilation operators and creation operators, replacing by . The canonical commutation relations are
Together with the normalization in part a, they give and vanishing equal-time commutators between two fields or two conjugate momenta.
Insert the mode expansion of a free field in the Hamiltonian. The spatial integral produces . The and coefficients cancel because . The remaining terms give
This is a continuum of quantum harmonic oscillators. In a finite periodic volume , . The Fock vacuum satisfies , so its vacuum energy density is
Normal ordering would subtract this constant; here it must be retained because it is the quantity being calculated.[ref]

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