Question: Protons and Neutrons Popping into and out of existance

[TreeofSkills]

I heard that protons and neutrons, aswell as electrons pop into and out of existance.
Is this by experiment, or mathmatics.

Thankyou

[malawi_glenn]

wow, you are perhaps talking about quantum fluctuations?

[DrChinese]

I heard that protons and neutrons, aswell as electrons pop into and out of existance.
Is this by experiment, or mathmatics.

Thankyou

I assume you are talking about virtual particles, which appear and disappear without leaving any direct trace.

Protons and neutrons are made of quarks. Virtual quarks do occur. But I do not believe an entire quark structure can spontaneously appear in virtual form. Maybe there is some slim chance that could occur but somehow I would guess that the likelihood of that is so small as to be considered negligible relative to the age of the universe.