Non-locality and time-dependent boundary conditions: a Klein-Gordon perspective

Abstract: The dynamics of a particle in an expanding cavity is investigated in the Klein-Gordon framework in a regime in which the single particle picture remains valid. The cavity expansion represents a time-dependent boundary condition for the relativistic wavefunction. We show that this expansion induces a non-local effect on the current density throughout the cavity. Our results indicate that a relativistic treatment still contains apparently spurious effects traditionally associated with the unbounded velocities inherent to non-relativistic solutions obtained from the Schroedinger equation. Possible reasons for this behaviour are discussed.