But where are they coming from and going to if matter and energy cannot be destroyed? Appear and disappear just means they merely become detectable/detected?
Think of particles as bundles of conserved quantities like charge, energy, mass, etc.
In interactions, these quantities can be shuffled around and re-bundled into different particles—but the re-bundling isn’t creating or destroying the conserved quantities themselves.
But where are they coming from and going to if matter and energy cannot be destroyed?
From nothing. No new energy is created because virtual particles are always created in a way that does not disturb the total energy of the universe. For example, one particle and one anti-particle. It can’t be any other way.
But where are they coming from and going to if matter and energy cannot be destroyed? Appear and disappear just means they merely become detectable/detected?
Think of particles as bundles of conserved quantities like charge, energy, mass, etc.
In interactions, these quantities can be shuffled around and re-bundled into different particles—but the re-bundling isn’t creating or destroying the conserved quantities themselves.
Ok. universe is made of Lego. Got it. :)
From nothing. No new energy is created because virtual particles are always created in a way that does not disturb the total energy of the universe. For example, one particle and one anti-particle. It can’t be any other way.