The interactions between real particles involve the appearance and disappearance of virtual particles. In these processes, both real and virtual particles can emerge and vanish, yet the interactions always ensure that properties like momentum and charge remain conserved. Therefore, what you should expect to persist are not the particles themselves, but the conserved properties that define them.
If a virtual particle dips or blips out of existence then where do they go? Do they come back at a different point showing movement when the blip occurs? Are they some how different when returning?
Submitted 3 days ago by Patnou@lemmy.world to [deleted]
Comments
notsosure@sh.itjust.works 3 days ago
merc@nord.pub 3 days ago
Virtual particles are still only theoretical. I think of them as a mental model of mathematical objects that arise when we try to calculate interactions between real particles.
I know there are some experiments like casimir effect that are attributed to virtual particles. But, it is possible to explain it in other ways.
rah@hilariouschaos.com 3 days ago
They don’t blip out of existence indepedently, they always annihilate each other. If you have a pair of positive and negative virtual particles, they will come into existence, exist separately for some time, possibly interacting with other, real particles, but in the end there will be some annihilation which ends the interaction and maintains the energy of the universe (no energy is created or destroyed).
RIotingPacifist@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Well except when one is near the event horizon of a blackhole, in that case they can in theory survive: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawking_radiation
rah@hilariouschaos.com 2 days ago
Apart form that, yes
Treczoks@lemmy.world 3 days ago
They are basically an energy credit. They don’t go anywhere. They don’t “come back” in any way.
Patnou@lemmy.world 3 days ago
what about Quantum?
adespoton@lemmy.ca 3 days ago
Do you mean their quanta? That’s what’s being preserved.
AbouBenAdhem@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Virtual particles appear and disappear as part of the interactions between real particles. The general phenomenon of particles appearing and disappearing in interactions happens with both real and virtual particles; the interactions are such that momentum, charge, etc. are conserved. So the things you should expect to see persisting in existence aren’t particles, but those conserved properties.
bookmeat@fedinsfw.app 3 days ago
But where are they coming from and going to if matter and energy cannot be destroyed? Appear and disappear just means they merely become detectable/detected?
AbouBenAdhem@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Think of particles as bundles of conserved quantities like charge, energy, mass, etc. In interactions, these quantities can be re-bundled into different particles—but the re-bundling isn’t creating or destroying the conserved quantities themselves.
rah@hilariouschaos.com 3 days ago
From nothing. No new energy is created because virtual particles are always created in a way that does not disturb the total energy of the universe. For example, one positive particle and one negative particle. It can’t be any other way.