  In a standard quantum field theory the norm $\langle \Omega\vert
\Omega\rangle$ of the vacuum state is taken to be finite. In this paper we
provide a procedure, based on constructing an equivalent wave mechanics, for
determining whether or not $\langle \Omega\vert \Omega\rangle$ actually is
finite. We provide an example based on a second-order plus fourth-order scalar
field theory, a prototype for quantum gravity, in which it is not. In this
example the Minkowski path integral with a real measure diverges though the
Euclidean path integral does not. Thus in this example contributions from the
Wick rotation contour cannot be ignored. Since $\langle \Omega\vert
\Omega\rangle$ is not finite, use of the standard Feynman rules is not valid.
And while these rules not only lead to states with negative norm, they in fact
lead to states with infinite negative norm. However, if the fields in that
theory are continued into the complex plane, we show that then there is a
domain in the complex plane known as a Stokes wedge in which one can define an
appropriate time-independent, positive and finite inner product, viz. the
$\langle L\vert R\rangle$ overlap of left-eigenstates and right-eigenstates of
the Hamiltonian; with the vacuum state then being normalizable, and with there
being no states with negative or infinite $\langle L\vert R\rangle$ norm. In
this Stokes wedge it is the Euclidean path integral that diverges while the
Minkowski path integral does not. The concerns that we raise in this paper only
apply to bosons since the matrices associated with their creation and
annihilation operators are infinite dimensional. Since the ones associated with
fermions are finite dimensional, the fermion theory vacuum is automatically
normalizable. Our results are relevant to the construction of a consistent,
unitary and renormalizable quantum theory of gravity.
