Virtual particles Definition and 189 Threads

Hey! Virtual particles appear and annihilate all over the universe. If a pair is created just on a black hole event horizon, the hole can take one particle and the other goes free - the hole has to give some energy in order for this to be real. Hawking, no? But - what if two small black...

As I understand it, according to the Copenhagen interpretation of QM, nothing can be said to exist until it is observed. I have also read that it is impossible to observe virtual particles in an experiment. How is it then that virtual particles can be said to exist?

Why forces are modeled as virtual particles in quantum mechanics and how virtual particles can transmit force between two real particles?

Folks, I have a question about virtual particles. I recently read in a Scientific American article which says that "virtual particles are indeed real particles. Quantum theory predicts that every particle spends some time as a combination of other particles in all possible ways. These...

Can they appear inside a black hole? Can they appear between an electron and the nucleus? Inside a nucleus? Can two sets appear at exactly the same place? What prevents them from appearing exactly where other existing matter is?

Light travels slower in mediums like water than it does in the vacuum. Would it be even faster in the vacuum if the vacuum were "true" and there were no virtual particles popping into existence? Shouldn't light be slowed by them?

At any given time, lots of them exist. I would expect this to produce a constant but rapidly changing gravitational force. How is this effect taken into account in cosmological theories?

Why are virtual photons and gravitons allowed to pass outwards through the event horizon of a black hole? Is it that it doesn't really make sense to assign a particular path to a virtual photon? This still isn't satisfying to me, as there is *no* path that allows a real photon to escape...

Are we sure about the existence of virtual particles?

Hello. Cant it be that the fabric of space-time continuum or space is transforming into the virtual particle and vice-versa?

I often read that particle-pairs that are created in the vacuum consists of a particle and it´s antiparticle which both have an positive energy that is "borrowed" from spacetime according to Heisenbergs Uncertainty principle. But when it comes to Hawking radiation one often refers to one of...

what the term "virtual particles" referred to I wanted to know what the term "virtual particles" referred to. I found many "descriptions" of them on webpages. Fine. Then I went to the index of many advanced QM books, and the term "virtual" doesn't really show up as prominently as I thought...

i know that virtual particles are a result of the uncertainty principle and that most of the time they are annihilated but i also think i read that sometimes they come into being when they receive an energy boost? I am thinking maybe an errant photon? also I've read about velocities of...

Perhaps someone can explain virtual particles. My intuitive notion of them is that particles come in and out of existence to communicate to other particles how to behave and if you try to observe them they disappear. How is the Higgs mechanism responsible for particle masses? What is a Higgs...

In the "Beyond the Standard Model" forum there is a thread entitled "What causes gravity?" https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=123380 In the discussion Yogi writes: What is the thinking among most physicists today on this issue? Are virtual particles considered certainly...

According to what I have read, virtual particles are those which are intermediate photons in interactions, which cannot be directly observed. If my understanding is correct that would mean that they consist of (in low order perturbation theory), (among other things) u and t channel photons. But...

I thought this up as a result of a philosophical debate over existence and more specifically creation. I asked them to give an example of creation saying that what we usually see as creation/destruction is only change, a restructuring. (ie. table being destroyed is actually a release of energy...

i saw this, is it true? http://forums.govteen.com/showpost.php?p=2494738&postcount=23

I read in wikipedia that the Casimir-effect is a one-loop quantum electrodynamical effect. This seems to be wrong to me. I always thought that it is raised due to electromagnetic zero point oscillations. And this oscillations have nothing to do with virtual photons either virtual particles. So...

I remeber hearing somewhere that if you apply energy to virtual particles before they annhilate each other and separate them by doing so, then they won't annhilate each other, thus giving more matter into the universe than it already has. Doesn't this mean that matter can be created? Has their...

As I understand it, according to the Copenhagen interpretation of QM, nothing can be said to exist until it is observed. I have also read that it is impossible to observe virtual particles in an experiment. How is it then that virtual particles can be said to exist?

Or is it just straight out of the equations? has it been detected?

I have read a bit about quantum foam and the creation of virtual particles. I understand the basic concepts, but there is one question that bothers me though: can we think of the virtual particles as just being a 'concentration' of spacetime caused by the uncertainty principle inherent in the...

As we know, when we do calculations in QFT, we write down the ampitude, and find that it can be explaind as Feynman diagrams, which is easier to work out. Then we use Feynman diagrams as a tool. Now the question is, is the propagator really exists in the small distance, i.e. the Feynman...

[SOLVED] virtual particles If there is createn a virtual pair (anti particle A and its particle B) in vacuum what are they doing in their life time? Is A always at the same position like B or how can they annihilate? And if they annihilate, what's with the energy (does it disappear)? Has the...

I've got a few questions about virtual particles here. If in a vacuum, the virtual particle come in a particle, anti-particle pair. What are these particles usually? Also, is it possible that these virtual particles exert a gravitational force on an object during its short existence?? And...

if so, what would they be? virtual strings? and do they react in the same way as what we thought point particles acted? if not, then how do black holes radiate energy in string theory? also, a quick question about black holes according to string theory. Is there more than one type of black...

Why can't a negative energy virtual particle escape from a black hole? Could two sets of virtual particles arise from the same point in space simultaneously? And would they have to annihilate simultaneously? And how does a rapidly oscillating gravitational field affect virtual particle...

Hejhej, There is a religious forum where I am posting in some evolution vs. creation threads. Creationists often believe that the world and everything else has not existed much longer then several thousands years. If you ask them how to explain that the light from stars millions of light...

static fields - quantum picture I am trying to understand quantum field theory & QED but i am having problems, because i don't find specific answer: What is the real quantum difference between electric and magnetic field? Maybe in spin of virtual photons (1, 0, -1)? But then what is...

We are all familiar with the Law of Conservation of Energy: Energy cannot be created nor destroyed In other words, the total energy in a closed system is constant. But if the above "axioms" are correct, how does it cope with the existence of virtual particles? In quantum physics, events are...

I re-read parts of "Genius" by James Gleick earlier today after visiting a web-site that discussed steady-state cosmology. Apparently, Feinman felt that the creation and obliteration of virtual particles (diagramed by equivalent waves moving BOTH forward and backward in time) supported the idea...

Suppose two particles bound by electromagnetic interaction, kind of hidrogen atom. How do you calculate the number of virtual photons exchanged by unit of time? Has this frequency of exchange some meaning in usual textbooks?

Hi everyone! Time has come for my first thread in this nice forum: I wonder if someone could explain the concept of virtual photons (and virtual particles in general)? Have I understood it right that they are just a mathematical construction and are not in any way "real"? I have a lack of...

my name is cory mccall and i live in spf mo. i am a junior in high school who is extremely interested in the fields of theoretical nuclear particle and astrophysics. for the first year I am going to submit a project to the science fair. over the course of about a month I am goin to be throwing...

my name is cory mccall and i live in spf mo. i am a junior in high school who is extremely interested in the fields of theoretical nuclear particle and astrophysics. for the first year I am going to submit a project to the science fair. over the course of about a month I am goin to be throwing...

Ok so if you can't see it then how do you really know anything about the effect or behavior on the unmeasured side? Isn't this dependent on the particular interpretation used, such as the Copenhagen Interpretation for instance? I mean what really is the "collapse of the wave function"...

Are virtual particles entangled when they appear? If so then when one of the pair falls into a black hole and other flies off, do they remain entangled? If so, does this mean that by observing black hole radiation we can in principle 'see inside'?

I know that the escape velocity for virtual particles being emitted from black holes is c2+ (in the black hole entropy formula, there is an escape velocity of c3). I also know that Hawking radiation and for that matter*(I don't mean matter in physics terms), any radiation being emitted from a...