Are Virtual Particles A New Layer of Reality?

Viewers like you help make PBS (Thank you 😃) . Support your local PBS Member Station here: Let me tell you a story about virtual particles. It may or may not be true. You can further support us on Patreon at Get your own Space Time t­-shirt at Tweet at us! @pbsspacetime Facebook: Email us! pbsspacetime [at] gmail [dot] com Comment on Reddit: Help translate our videos! Previous Episode: Will We Ever Find Alien Life? Hosted by Matt O’Dowd Written by Graeme Gossell and Matt O’Dowd Graphics by Luke Maroldi Assistant Editing and Sound Design by Mike Petrow Made by Kornhaber Brown () Sometimes our mathematical hacks point to strange new aspects of reality. For example Max Planck used a quantization trick to figure out the spectrum of light emitted by hot objects. The quantization part of his math trick was meant to disappear in the final form of equation, but it remained - it proved fundamental. That math hack turned out to represent the very real quantum nature of the photon. This insight let to the discovery of all quantum physics. A more recent mathematical hack is the virtual particle. They started out as a trick to make impossible calculations in quantum field theory possible. Possible, at least, for the sort of people who can do quantum field theory. So will virtual particles also prove to represent a new underlying aspect of reality? We’re going to go pretty deep in this one - but it will bring us to a better understanding of the quantum nature of reality, so stick with me. Special thanks to our Patreon Big Bang, Quasar and Hypernova Supporters: Big Bang David Nicklas CoolAsCats Anton Lifshits Fabrice Eap Justin Lloyd Juan Benet Quasar Tambe Barsbay Mark Rosenthal Dean Fuqua James Flowers Vinnie Falco Hypernova Chuck Zegar Jordan Young Joseph Salomone John Hofmann Martha Hunt Matthew O’Connor Ratfeast Brent Mullins Donal Botkin Edmund Fokschaner Max Levine Thanks to our Patreon Gamma Ray Burst Supporters: Alexander Rodriguez Alexey Eromenko Brandon Cook Brandon Labonte Daniel Lyons David Crane Fabian Olesen Fauzan Ardhana Greg Allen Greg Weiss Jack Frosch James Hughes JJ Bagnell Jon Folks Joseph Emison Josh Thomas Kevin Warne Malte Ubl Mark Vasile Nathan Leniz Nicholas Rose Nick Virtue Scott Gossett Shannan Catalano Shawn Azman Tommy Mogensen سلطان الخليفي