Time-dependent scalings and Fock quantization of a massless scalar field in Kantowski–Sachs

Abstract We address the issue of inequivalent Fock representations in quantum field theory in a curved homogenous and anisotropic cosmological background, namely Kantowski–Sachs spacetime, which can also be used to describe the interior of a nonrotating black hole. A family of unitarily equivalent Fock representations that are invariant under the spatial isometries and implement a unitary dynamics can be achieved by means of a field redefinition that consists of a specific anisotropic scaling of the field configuration and a linear transformation of its momentum. Remarkably, we show that this kind of field redefinition is in fact unique under our symmetry and unitary requirements. However, the physical properties of the Hamiltonian dynamics that one obtains in this way are not satisfactory, inasmuch as the action of the Hamiltonian on the corresponding particle states is ill defined. To construct a quantum theory without this problem, we need a further canonical transformation that is time- and mode-dependent and is not interpretable as an anisotropic scaling. The old and new Fock representations, nevertheless, are unitarily equivalent. The freedom that is introduced when allowing for this further canonical transformation can be fixed by demanding an asymptotic diagonalization of the Hamiltonian and a minimal absorption of dynamical phases. In this way, the choice of vacuum and the associated Fock representation are asymptotically determined.