Quantum and Thermal Properties of the Klein-Gordon Inverted Harmonic Oscillator with Physical Applications

Abstract

We develop a systematic framework for the quantum and thermal properties of a Klein-Gordon scalar field subject to an inverted harmonic potential $-\frac{1}{2}{m}^2{\omega }^2{x}^2$. Starting from a non-Hermitian momentum substitution $P\to P-m\omega x$, we employ a symplectic phase-space rotation $V=\exp \left[-\frac{\pi }{8}(xp+px)\right]$ to map the system onto an analytically tractable effective harmonic oscillator evaluated at $x{e}^{i\pi /4}$. This allows us to define a well-regulated partition function $Z(\beta ,\omega ,m)$ and derive closed-form expressions for the free energy, entropy, and thermal correlation functions. We then apply this framework to three physical settings: (i) scalar field fluctuations during cosmological inflation, (ii) quantum fields near black-hole horizons, and (iii) order-parameter dynamics near second-order phase transitions in condensed matter. Our results unify previously scattered results in the literature and provide new predictions for the finite-temperature spectral density and entanglement entropy of unstable quantum systems.