The 'Real Existence' Of Virtual Particles Viewed Through Systemic Functional Linguistics

 Davies & Gribbin (1992: 14):

The situation is even worse in the new physics, where the distinction between the model and reality sometimes becomes hopelessly blurred. In quantum field theory, for instance, theorists often refer to abstract entities called 'virtual' particles. These ephemeral objects come into existence out of nothing, and almost immediately fade away again. Although a faint trace of their fleeting passage can appear in ordinary matter, the virtual particles themselves can never be directly observed. 

So to what extent can they be said really to exist? Might virtual particles be merely a convenient aid to the theorist's intuition — a simple way to describe processes that are otherwise unimaginable in terms of familiar concepts — rather than real objects? Or might they be, like epicycles, an essential part of a model that will turn out to be wrong, and which will be replaced by a model in which they have no place?

Blogger Comments:

From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic Theory, virtual particles are second-order meaning (scientific model), and 'a faint trace of their fleeting passage' is first-order meaning that is assessed as indirect support for the model. 

In this view, the "coming into existence out of nothing" of virtual particles is the process of instantiating quantum potential, and the actual duration of each particle is an instance of the probable duration as quantum potential.

From this perspective, the question of whether or not virtual particles "really exist" is actually a question of whether or not the model is valid according to the criteria used to assess it. As the history of science demonstrates, what is "real" continually changes as the semiotic systems that construe experience evolve.