What happens when two of the evanescent particles that Hawking

[thepemberton]

Hello,

I didn't know where else to ask this, but I'm quite curious. What happens when two of the evanescent particles that Hawking describes, pop into existence at the same place and the same instant effectively overlapping each other?

The source that sparked this question: http://www.economist.com/node/17144843?story_id=17144843&fsrc=rss#black_and_light"

Many thanks!

 

[zhermes]

Hi thepemberton, welcome to PF. Due to quantum mechanical (QM) effects the exact location and time of these particles appearing are pretty close to overlapping, there is some probability distribution that describes their likely initial separations. If they---hypothetically---appeared exactly in the same space (keep in mind that an exact place isn't always well defined in QM) then they simply wouldn't be able to participate in hawking radiation. They would most likely annihilate shortly after as most 'evanescent' (virtual) particles do. Does that help?

 

[thepemberton]

Thanks zhermes! That question was bugging me. I'll read up a little more on virtual particles!