Can virtual particles turn into real particles(news about new study)?

[cosmanino2050]

TL;DR

If virtual particles are merely mathematical tools used to calculate quantum field interactions, how should we interpret the news about the recent study claiming that these virtual particles can actually be converted into real, observable matter?
https://www.newsweek.com/physicists-get-peek-how-matter-born-from-nothing-11464591

If virtual particles are merely mathematical tools used to calculate quantum field interactions, how should we interpret the news about the recent study claiming that these virtual particles can actually be converted into real, observable matter?
They say the following in the article:
"This suggested that the strange quark/antiquark particles in the lambda/antilambda particles emerged as an entangled pair—retaining a spin linkage that was established in the vacuum.
According to the researchers, the energy of the particle collisions in the RHIC gives the "virtual" particles the energy boost they need to transform into "real" particles.
"This is the first time we’ve been able to see directly that the quarks that make up these particles are coming from the vacuum—it’s a direct window into the quantum vacuum fluctuations," said Tu."
Do they mean that the quarks which were in the vacuum virtual turned into real particles or the photons or the gluons which were virtual particles turned into real quarks?
https://www.newsweek.com/physicists-get-peek-how-matter-born-from-nothing-11464591

 

[Nugatory]

how should we interpret the news about the recent study claiming that these virtual particles can actually be converted into real, observable matter?

It is Newsweek doing their best to describe what is going on in to a non-technical audience using non-technical math-free language.