Virtual Particles: What are they? (2011)
From the article:<p>&gt; a “virtual particle” disturbance is different from a real particle.  If something makes a real particle, that particle can go off on its own across space.  If something makes a disturbance, that disturbance will die away, or break apart, once its cause is gone.  So it’s not like a particle at all, and I wish we didn’t call it that.<p>Another comment here mentioned Hawking radiation. Isn&#x27;t Hawking radiation when a pair of virtual particles appears just at the event horizon of a black hole, with one &quot;falling in&quot; and the other escaping out? Is it not in fact going &quot;off on its own across space&quot;? Or as the Wikipedia article[1] on Hawking radiation puts it: &quot;the other escapes into the wider universe (&#x27;to infinity&#x27;)&quot;. I fail to see the difference here, especially when both pages use very similar language about particles traveling the universe. If the one that escapes is &quot;not like a particle at all&quot;, how is it different? Does it not behave exactly like any other particle of the same kind?<p>Or is the article calling a &quot;disturbance&quot; the creation and annihilation of a pair of virtual particles? I certainly see how that&#x27;s different from a particle, but it&#x27;s also pretty clear that it&#x27;s not one particle but a pair. Of course this very special pair of particles that spawns and disappears is not like &quot;a&quot; particle.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Hawking_radiation" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Hawking_radiation</a>