If subatomic particles can come into existence spontaneously...?

Question

If subatomic particles can come into existence and disappear spontaneously... then why are atoms (and other, larger objects which are composed of atoms, such as rocks, trees, houses...) not able to spontaneously "appear" and "disappear"?

Answer 1

That's a really interesting question.
First, we have conservation of energy. For these purposes, mass is a kind of energy (E=mc^2). This law holds true, for the most part, and the total amount of energy that exists must stay constant.

Then we have the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. One result of this is that things such as energy cannot be measured exactly over short periods of time. The shorter the time is, the more uncertainty there is. Eventually, if you're looking over an incredibly short time, the uncertainty is large enough that a particle and an antiparticle can pop in and out of existence, all within the uncertainty. Conservation of energy is powerless to stop that, since the uncertainty principle gets around it. In the end, though, because the particles left so quickly, the total amount of energy in the universe is unchanged over a long period of time.

Now, that works for electrons. A single hydrogen atom (the lightest one), is over 2000 times as heavy as an electron, and so would be nearly impossible to pull out of the vacuum. The time of its existence is just that short. Is there a probability it could happen? Yes, but it would be brief, and incredibly unlikely. Moreover, you'd need the nucleus particles (protons, etc.) and the electrons to spontaneously appear at the same time and same place. We're now astronomically unlikely here.

For a house to do that is out of the question. A house is so heavy and so many coincidences would be needed, it would be impossible.

Now, you might be interested to know that these particles popping in and out does affect things. For one, it changes how an atom behaves in a magnetic field. It is only slight, but the sea of "virtual" particles is enough to change the electron's gyromagnetic ratio by about 0.2%.

Answer 2

You pretty much answered your own question when you mentioned subatomic particles appearing and disappearing spontaneously. These so-called 'virtual particles' are always created in pairs, each an antiparticle of the other which is why they self-annihilate instantaneously. These virtual particles never have a chance to merge with others into atoms, rocks, trees, etc.,.

The atoms that exist in all the matter (..rocks, trees, etc.,) in the universe has been created by the physics of the Big Bang, not by the quantum mechanical actions that generate virtual particles.

Answer 3

Because an atom is made up of many many particle. At a minimum for the hydrogen atom, it has a proton and an electron. The proton is made of three quarks. So you need 4 particles: 3 quarks and an electron.

Now any of these can spontaneously appear along with its anti-particle but it will live a very short amount of time (around planck time which is 10^-43 second.) In this incredibly short time there is no way in hell that three quarks and an electron gang up to make an atom.

Answer 4

There is a an equation which expresses uncertainty at sub atomic dimensions.. It's derived from the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. It says that a particle of a certain mass can only become a virtual particle (spontaneous) for a certain amount of time and the particle must always be matched by its antiparticle to conserve things like charge. After the alloted time goes by they must recombine and go away. As the mass of the entity goes up, the time (probability) that it can exist gets unimaginably small. Conceptually, a virtual SUV could pop up next to you but the probability is zero. A virtual atom would have to be matched by it's anti-atom and the SUV by its anti-SUV. This is basically impossible.

Answer 5

I'm a total amateur when it comes to this, but I'm not sure if even the smartest scientist in the world can truthfully answer this question. Here is the way I perceive it, but I could easily be wrong. If you've even studied String Theory, you will already know that there is the potential for there to be several additional dimensions besides the four we know (up-down, left-right, forward-back, and time) that exist at all points in the universe. These dimensions are very very small. So small in fact that only subatomic particles can traverse through them.

Isn't it possible that these particles that are disappearing and appearing are in the process of moving through these extra dimensions.....it's something to consider.

Answer 6

They do, but for such small amounts of time that they effect nothing in our universe. (delta E)*(delta t)< h (Planck's constant) assures that only the lightest of particles appear spontaneously for long enough to interact.

All of the possible interactions of all of the "virtual" objects must be taken into account for the model to be exact, but luckily as the mass of the object increases, the interaction probability falls very quickly and so perfectly good models of the universe are possible while completely ignoring virtual rocks and trees!

Answer 7

Because any observable particle is composed of many subatomic particles. The chance that a significant number ob subatomic particles will disappear at once is very small.

Answer 8

They can.

However, the chances of it happening are rather slim as all the particles would have to do something very unlikely all at the same time - when I say the chances are slim I mean if you waited a million, trillion years - it wouldnt happen.

Quantum mechanics says these sorts of things can occur, just like thermodynamic 'miracles' but we'll never see them in our lifetimes.

Answer 9

Laws of probability.

Read the hitch-hikers guide to the galaxy.

Answer 10

I think you are mistaken in the assertion that ANY particle can be created spontaneously.