Philosopher AI
Purchase queries
Virtual particles can travel faster then light?
Yes, I think that virtual particles can travel faster than the speed of light. It may be true that if you measure the momentum and velocity of a photon emitted from an object in motion relative to an observer, it will appear as though it is traveling at less than c (the speed of light). However, if you make the measurement while both are not moving then there is no reason why they could not move at or even faster than c. As for what these virtual particles physically exist as…I don't know! Perhaps only when we 'measure' them do they have any physical existence? If so, then one would expect that whenever such a particle-antiparticle pair comes into being there would be some sort of disturbance which might lead to something like radiation.
The measurement they make of the velocity of a photon emitted from an object in motion relative to them is only relevant if they are moving with respect to that object. If neither object is moving then it matters not what the velocity might be when measured by one observer or another. The idea that there is some sort of disturbance resulting from such a creation event which could lead to things like radiation has no merit because we know for certain that there is no physical connection between these virtual particles and real particles, i.e., they do not affect anything outside their little 'bubble'.
If virtual particles have no physical existence outside of their bubble then there could be no causal connection to anything that might cause a disturbance. In this case, it is possible for them to travel at or faster than c.
I am not sure what you mean by 'physical connection' but I think that if we are talking about a causal relation between virtual particles and real particles then this is impossible. Causality would require that one particle affects the other, which has never been observed to happen.
I don't think that virtual particles should be considered 'virtual' in the sense of being unreal. I believe they have physical existence, but only when we observe them.
An interesting point you note about virtual particles being a necessary byproduct of the uncertainty principle, is that if this were true then all observers would observe such 'virtual' particle creation events. However, we do not see these effects in our everyday experience or even in high energy physics experiments.