Do particles really emerge from the vacuum at random?

jeebs
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Everyone knows that particle-antiparticle pairs are supposed to be able to spontaneously pop into existence from "nothing", exist whilst the uncertainty principle allows it, then recombine and annihilate.

Is it really spontaneous though, or has any thought been given towards whether this is more than just a random occurence?
 
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I rather liked watching that thread learned a lot from it.
 

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