Timelike photon polarization (${ϵ}^{0\mu }=(1,0,0,0)$)

A timelike basis polarization in covariant photon quantization has positive Minkowski metric squared length, conventionally ${ϵ}^{0\mu }=(1,0)$ with signature $(+,-,-,-)$. It is distinct from the spatial longitudinal polarization ${ϵ}^{3\mu }=(0,\hat{\mathbf{p}})$. The extra minus sign in the covariant oscillator commutator makes its one-photon state a negative-norm photon state. Neither this temporal polarization nor an isolated longitudinal photon survives the Gupta-Bleuler null-state quotient.