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AGPhil: Arbeitsgruppe Philosophie der Physik

AGPhil 10: Particle Physics 1

AGPhil 10.2: Talk

Wednesday, March 20, 2024, 15:30–16:00, PTB SR AvHB

On the emergence of virtual particles in classical mechanics — •Amaia Corral-Villate — University of the Basque Country, Spain

The indispensability of singular limits as a context for emergence has recently been questioned, but it is also known that they may entail the emergence of new properties in physics. Following this last idea, my objective in this talk is to build a very simple and illustrative model for emergence in classical mechanics, by analysing the singular limit consisting in taking the number of particles involved to be infinite.

Specifically, my model shows that under a general condition of locality, infinite classical mechanical systems may entail the emergence of entities that, given the similarities with virtual particles in quantum field theory, may be thought of as virtual particles in classical mechanics. Such similarities consist basically in (i) not satisfying the relation for energy and momentum, and (ii) belonging essentially to interactions.

Regardless of whether or not the basis for a model is itself physical, what can be learnt from it may help understand other processes that are physical. In particular, this simple and illustrative model of emergence in classical mechanics allows for a very intuitive grasp of the process of emergence of virtual particles itself, that can at the same time be analysed with clarity and precision.

Keywords: emergence; classical mechanics; virtual particles