  We discuss how to formulate a condition for choosing the vacuum state of a
quantum scalar field on a timelike hyperplane in the general boundary
formulation (GBF) using the coupling to an Unruh-DeWitt detector. We explicitly
study the response of an Unruh-DeWitt detector for evanescent modes which occur
naturally in quantum field theory in the presence of the equivalent of a
dielectric boundary. We find that the physically correct vacuum state has to
depend on the physical situation outside of the boundaries of the spacetime
region considered. Thus it cannot be determined by general principles
pertaining only to a subset of spacetime.
