space question

[hoola]

as I understand it, space is composed of two virtual particles appearing, then annialating, as borrowed energy, but do these pairs originate from the same source? If they were omitted  at that same point, why would they have been differentiated in the first place? Wouldn't they have "pre annialated"? Were they cancelling each other out until physical separation allowed their respective properties to materialize?

[hoola]

to simplify matters...what if there was only one particle emitted as borrowed energy instead of a pair, and it bumped into other particles of space, and those interactions determine the annialations ....and... What if a single particle appeared into a void, and no other particles existed, causing it to express maximum energy since nothing else was there to prevent that from happening...wouldn't that be a model for the big bang?

[swansont]

Virtual particles in “empty” space appear in pairs, owing to conservation laws. Particle and antiparticle. They are not real, though. They’re a calculation tool, part of a model.

(The notion of “borrowed” energy is an attempt to explain quantum physics in classical terms, but that’s another discussion)

[hoola]

not real? then what is the source of the casimir force?

[hoola]

if the particles are mathematical abstractions, they seem to have a physical presence in certain tests until they are "borrowed back".

[swansont]

On 11/20/2022 at 1:03 AM, hoola said:

not real? then what is the source of the casimir force?

The quantum vacuum has an energy, and excluding some vacuum states (with conductive plates) means there is less energy

1 hour ago, hoola said:

if the particles are mathematical abstractions, they seem to have a physical presence in certain tests until they are "borrowed back".

The effects are real, but how they are modeled is a computational convenience.

[hoola]

_{...so, it from bit then...}

[Intoscience]

On 11/19/2022 at 4:09 AM, hoola said:

as I understand it, space is composed of two virtual particles appearing, then annialating, as borrowed energy, but do these pairs originate from the same source? If they were omitted  at that same point, why would they have been differentiated in the first place? Wouldn't they have "pre annialated"? Were they cancelling each other out until physical separation allowed their respective properties to materialize?

As far as we know "space" isn't composed of anything, its just a void separating things. What is theorised, is that empty space is not really empty, so its would be easy in this respect to image space being composed of something.  

[hoola]

it seems as though the particles appearances are too brief to register in this domain of reality, so as to be said as not be not there, which they are shown to be by the casimir experiment. Nothing lasts forever, so why say things don't exist simply because they exist at the lower boundary of lifetime duration of a particular material property?

[swansont]

1 hour ago, hoola said:

it seems as though the particles appearances are too brief to register in this domain of reality, so as to be said as not be not there, which they are shown to be by the casimir experiment. Nothing lasts forever, so why say things don't exist simply because they exist at the lower boundary of lifetime duration of a particular material property?

The presence of the virtual particles inferred by the vacuum energy, but the Casimir force is from the exclusion of some of the vacuum energy states. One need not invoke virtual particle pairs (or their absence) to explain the Casimir force.

Although the Casimir effect can be expressed in terms of virtual particles interacting with the objects, it is best described and more easily calculated in terms of the zero-point energy of a quantized field in the intervening space between the objects.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casimir_effect