The Quantum field’s effect on Virtual Particles

[Andrew Bone]

So many prominent physicists have argued that the universe may have formed within a vacuum from a virtual particle (either with no energy or without an opposite pair etc...). It’s the classical something from nothing argument.

However, could it not be argued that a “vacuum” within our universe still adheres to the laws of physics, as it still contains the various quantum fields within? If the previous statement is correct why do we then assume a true vacuum (or at least a different vacuum) existing beyond the event horizon of the universe operates in the same way (i.e. creating virtual particles).

Do we understand the quantium field's effect on virtual particles?

 

[DarMM]

Virtual particles are names given to terms in integrals that come up in Quantum Field Theoretic calculations. They are not actual particles measured in the lab via scattering experiments.

It's simply that these terms arrange themselves in such a way that there is a way of constructing them from a diagram (and ultimately this is due to the link between combinatorics and graphs). Some people like to then read these mnemonic graphs as a process to help think about the computation, but this isn't fundamental to field theory.