MajinVegeta Posted April 21, 2003 Posted April 21, 2003 Is there a way to figure out the escape velocity of virtual particles? What causes them to surpass their escape velocity?why? What exactly are virtual particles? I started a thread on this same subject on another forum, but no one seemed to know what exactly virtual particles are. I learned that they were involved in quantum field theory, and they were mathematical solutions for something. :help: :feedback:
Radical Edward Posted April 22, 2003 Posted April 22, 2003 quantum fluctuations of the vacuum energy ( 1/2:h::lcomega: ) if I recall correctly. what do you mean by surpass escape velocity though?
MajinVegeta Posted April 23, 2003 Author Posted April 23, 2003 I said that to avoid saying "how do virtual particles escape the escape velocity of a black hole?" But, there is a slight descrepency with the question, as you can see. Vitrual particles only appear to escape the escape velocity (is there a synnonym for "escape"??) of a black hole. So is there a particular point were the particles can escape?
Radical Edward Posted April 23, 2003 Posted April 23, 2003 yeap, I thought that is what you were getting at. It just depends on the energy of the particle. Ignoring QM (since QM and black holes don't mix) a particle can escape from a distance arbitrarily close, but not on, the event horizon if it has enough energy. However, so the theory goes (Hawking I believe), black holes emit like black bodies, so they will have a characteristic black body type spectrum of emission.
MajinVegeta Posted April 24, 2003 Author Posted April 24, 2003 Ahh, very interesting. So virtual particles are high energy particles, right? They do need a lot of energy to travel at near superluminal speeds. What exactly is a virtual particle though? Someone on another forum said that they did not exist.
fafalone Posted April 24, 2003 Posted April 24, 2003 I believe the virtual particles to which you are referring are a particle and its anti-particle being spontaneously created from nothing due to the vacuum fluctuations Radical Edward mentioned. They don't exist for very long.
Radical Edward Posted April 24, 2003 Posted April 24, 2003 they aren't all high energy particles, just some of them are. as faf said, they are just normal particle/antiparticle pairs that spontaneously come about as a result of fluctuations in the vacuum energy. fluctuations in the same vacuum energy are also responsible for so called spontaneous emission.
MajinVegeta Posted April 25, 2003 Author Posted April 25, 2003 Why do antiparticles annihilate each other?
Radical Edward Posted April 25, 2003 Posted April 25, 2003 they don't. when a particle and it's corresponding antiparticle collide, they are both annihilated, usually turning into gamma radiation, or perhaps other particles, depending on the interaction.
MajinVegeta Posted April 25, 2003 Author Posted April 25, 2003 What causes them to collide? Do the alpha particles they emit classify them as nuclear particles?
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