How physicists’ clever bookkeeping trick could underlie reality

An intelligent mathematical tool known as virtual particles unlocks the strange and mysterious internal functioning of the subatomic particles. What happens to these particles inside the atoms would remain unexplained without this tool. Calculations using virtual particles predict the bizarre behavior of the subatomic particles with such a strange precision that some scientists think “that they really have to exist”.

Virtual particles are not real – it just says it in their name, but if you want to understand how real particles interact with each other, they are inevitable. These are essential tools to describe three of the forces found in nature: electromagnetism and strong and weak nuclear forces.

The real particles are pieces of energy which can be “seen” or detected by appropriate instruments; This feature is what makes them observable or real. Virtual particles, on the other hand, are a sophisticated mathematical tool and cannot be seen. The physicist Richard Feynman invented them to describe the interactions between real particles.

But many physicists are not convinced by this cut and dried distinction. Although researchers cannot detect these virtual particles, as calculation tools, they predict many subtle effects that ultra -sensitive experiences have confirmed to 12 mind -blowing decimal. This precision is like measuring the distance between the north and southern poles to the best than the width of a single hair.

This level of agreement between measures and calculations makes virtual particles the most fully approved idea in science. Does this oblige some physicists to ask: can a mathematical tool become real?

An accounting tool

Virtual particles are the tool that physicists use to calculate the functioning of forces in the microscopic subatomic world. Forces are real because they can be measured.

But instead of trying to directly calculate the forces, physicists use an accounting system where short -term virtual particles bear the force. Not only do virtual particles make calculations more manageable, but they also solve a long-standing problem in physics: how does a force act in empty space?

The virtual particles exploit the natural vagueness of the subatomic world, where if these ephemeral particles live quite briefly, they can also briefly borrow their energy from the empty space. The vagueness of energy balance hides this brief imbalance, which allows virtual particles to influence the real world.

A great advantage of this tool is that mathematical operations describing forces between particles can be viewed in the form of diagrams. They tend to look like caricatures with a pingpong stick figure of particles played with virtual particles. The diagrams – have plunged Feynman’s diagrams – offer an excellent intuitive frame, but they also give virtual particles an aura of reality which is misleading.

Surprisingly, this particle -based virtual calculation method produces some of the most precise predictions of all science.

REALITY

All subjects are made up of basic construction blocks called atoms. The atoms, in turn, are made of small particles loaded positively called protons found in their hearts, surrounded by particles even smaller negatively called electrons.

As a teacher of physics and astronomy at the Mississippi State University, I perform experiences that often rest on the idea that electrons and protons seen in our instruments interact by exchanging virtual particles. My colleagues and I recently measured the size of the proton very precisely, by bombing hydrogen atoms with a bundle of electrons. This measure assumes that the electrons can “feel” the proton in the center of the hydrogen atom by exchanging virtual photons: electromagnetic energy particles.

Physicists use virtual particles to calculate how two electrons grow back, with exquisite precision. The forces involved are represented as the accumulated effect of the two electrons exchanging virtual photons.

When two metal plates are placed extremely close to each other in the void, they attract each other: this is called the Casimir effect. Physicists can accurately calculate the force that brings together plates using particle virtual mathematics. Whether virtual particles are really there or not, mathematics predict exactly what researchers observe in the real world.

Yet another mysterious prediction made using the virtual particle tool kit is the so-called walking radiation. When the pairs of virtual particles exist at the edge of black holes, the gravity of the black hole sometimes seizes a partner while the other escapes. This rift means that the black hole evaporates slowly. Although the hawking influence has not yet been directly observed, the researchers recently observed it indirectly.

Useful fiction

Let’s go back to the question: can a mathematical tool become real? If you can perfectly predict everything on a force by imagining it is carried by virtual particles, are these particles considered to be real? Is their fictitious status important?

Physicists remain divided on these questions. Some prefer “to be silent and calculate” – one of Feynman’s famous jokes. For the moment, virtual particles are our best way to describe how particles behave. But researchers develop alternative methods that do not need it at all.

In case of success, these approaches could make virtual particles disappear. Successful or not, the fact that alternatives exist at all suggest that virtual particles could be a useful fiction rather than a physical truth. It also corresponds to the model of previous revolutions in science – the example of ether comes to my mind. Physicists invented ether as a means through which the light waves were traveling. The experiments corresponded well to the calculations using this tool, but they could not really detect it. Finally, Einstein’s theory of relativity showed that it was not necessary.

Virtual particles are a striking paradox of modern physics. They should not exist, but they are essential to calculate everything, from the strength of magnets to the behavior of black holes. They represent a deep dilemma: sometimes the best perspectives on reality come from a carefully constructed illusion. In the end, confusion around virtual particles can just be the price of understanding fundamental forces.

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