Quantum existence?

Question

I've heard a couple times that the subatomic particles aren't even in full existence, that they 'pop' in and out of existence. What actual proof of this is there? I'm not going to ask where they go because I doubt we know but does anyone know why/how is occurs?

Answer 1

Probably something about jumping between different dimensions that we are unable to observe or even detect that exist.  These dimensions may be entire other universes the size of a subatomic particle.  Maybe the universes are created when they pop out of our observable spacial dimensions.  Maybe our universe was created in the same way; the big bang was our universe being created when some subatomic particle of another universe popped into the spacial dimensions that we now occupy.  Maybe that particle will soon pop back out to where it came from and we will no longer be in existance.  Whoa!

Answer 2

You have asked a very interesting question which I will answer by saying : "The basic laws of physics we all obey are "not" necessarily completely true & some are actually totally wrong". I don't want you to lose faith in our known knowledge on the laws of physics, but keep an open mind that they are only currently accepted until proven otherwise. With regards to Quantum physics in general, I am at a loss at how our scientists know very little about the subject !

Answer 3

It's described by quantum mechanics and has been observed by particle physicists. You probably are talking about virtual particles. These have to exist due to laws of conservation. When particles/atoms decay or react, they have to conserve mass, energy, quarks, and many other things. To keep this conservation, virtual particles exist. Also, due to the uncertainty principal, there is a non-zero probability for a particle to pop into existence. Usually, it will pop into existence with an anti-particle pair and they will destroy each other. This doesn't affect the energy density of the universe, because this energy fluctuation is so low it may as well be zero.

To Level 7: You seem like the time of person who likes giving long confusing answers to non-physics people with extra info that has little to do with the question to make yourself seem smart and does nothing to help the person. All the info you gave can be found on Wikipedia. No ego trips please. I greatly dislike people who do that.

Answer 4

I think you might be talking about what are known as 'virtual particles' and to discuss them we have to first dabble in quantum physics and zero-point energy (ZPG). The quantum realm begins at spatial sizes of 1.6^ minus 35 meters -- about 10^ minus 20 times smaller than the proton. In the quantum world space, instead of being geometrically "flat," is a kind of seething foam of energy, gravitational, electromagnetic and nuclear.

There's little question that ZPG exists, particularly because of an observed phenomenon known as the 'Casmir Effect.' See http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/prin... for a discussion on the Casimir Effect.

We also know that e = m * c² and in this instance can replace 'e' with 'ZPG' which causes virtual particles to literally pop into existence out of what seems empty space. Each generation always comes with two particles, one the anti-particle of the other. The law of conservation of matter is safe though because as an anti-particle pair the two almost immediately self-annihilate.

Where's the proof though? First, the Casimir Effect has been proven which in turn proves the existence of ZPG. For the virtual particles themselves the proof of their existence lies in that they affect probabilities of scattering processes by offering alternate pathways for the scattering, and so their presence can be observed by comparing computed probabilities to the actual results.