Gold atoms smashed together at near-light speed have literally summoned matter and antimatter out of the empty vacuum.
The quantum vacuum is not actually empty, but filled with fleeting fluctuations that usually vanish instantly. By using the immense electromagnetic fields generated in gold-gold collisions, researchers pulled proton-antiproton pairs into existence. This is the first time the Schwinger mechanism has been observed creating such heavy particles from pure energy and empty space. It confirms that the vacuum can be boiled to produce tangible matter if you hit it hard enough. This brings us closer to understanding how the very first particles formed in the early universe.
$p\bar{p}$ production from QED vacuum excitation in high-energy nuclear collisions
research_square · rs-9575649
Abstract In Quantum Electrodynamics (QED), the vacuum is permeated by continuous quantum energy fluctuations, driven by zero-point motion resulting from the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, which briefly give rise to virtual particle-antiparticle pairs. Although these pairs normally annihilate almost instantaneously, sufficiently strong electromagnetic fields can force the charged particles apart and supply the energy needed to convert them into real, observable particles, i.e., the Schwinger m