Physicists have long noticed that their theoretical world is different from the experimental. In the experimental world, accurate values and properties are measured, and in theoretical, reality is modeled using complex mathematical tools. One of the striking examples of this is virtual particles. In theory, there are real particles that can be measured, and virtual, which are not fixed by detectors, but fill the entire space.
Virtual particles: what is it?
Virtual particles are a mathematical tool used to describe quantum processes. They cannot be discovered directly, since they do not leave traces in detectors, do not face real particles and do not exist in the usual sense. Nevertheless, their influence on the real world can be significantly measured. One of the first experimental evidence of the existence of virtual particles was the discovery made in 1947, known as Lambov.
Hydrogen, consisting of one proton and one electron, serves as an ideal model for studying quantum theory. The proton has a mass of about 1836 times more than the mass of the electron, a positive charge and a semi-henity. The electron, associated with the proton, forms a neutral hydrogen atom, whose mass is slightly less than the sum of the masses of free proton and electron. This difference arises due to energy that is released when they are binded in the form of photons.
Energy levels of electron in the hydrogen atom are discrete, which is the basis of quantum physics. The transitions of the electron between the levels are accompanied by the emission or absorption of photons, which is explained by the laws of quantum mechanics. For example, when the electron transitions from a free state, 13.6 electron-volt energy is released to the main state of the hydrogen atom. This energy corresponds to the mass lost when the atom is formed, according to Einstein’s famous equation E = mc².
In 1947, the experiment Lamb and Retherford opened a new aspect of quantum theory. They excited hydrogen atoms from the main state (1S) to the first excited state (2S) using an electron beam. Then they irradiated these excited atoms with electromagnetic radiation. When the radiation frequency reached a little more than 1 GHz, some of