Scientists observe virtual particles turning into real matter

Thursday 05 February 2026 - 11:20

By: Dakir Madiha

Scientists observe virtual particles turning into real matter

Scientists at Brookhaven National Laboratory have captured the first direct experimental evidence of virtual particles from quantum vacuum transforming into detectable real matter, shedding new light on how nothingness spawns the visible universe.

The breakthrough, detailed in a recent Nature publication, stems from the STAR collaboration's work at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) in Upton, New York. As the facility enters its 25th and final year of operations before transitioning to an electron-ion collider, researchers analyzed millions of proton-proton collision events. They zeroed in on pairs of lambda hyperons and anti-lambda particles, which contain strange quarks.

Quantum theory posits that the vacuum teems with fleeting quark-antiquark pairs that briefly emerge before vanishing, their spins inherently aligned due to magnetic properties. The STAR detector spotted these lambda and anti-lambda particles emerging in close proximity during collisions, with their spins perfectly aligned, a telltale sign of virtual particles from the vacuum. The team measured a relative polarization signal of 18 percent, with just a 4 percent margin of error.

"This finding opens a unique window into the quantum vacuum, potentially ushering in a new era for understanding how visible matter forms and acquires its fundamental properties," said Zhoudunming Tu, a STAR physicist at Brookhaven who co-led the study. High-energy RHIC collisions supplied the boost needed to convert these entangled strange quark pairs into real, observable particles.

The discovery carries profound implications for unraveling the proton's mass origins. Physicists have long known that quarks account for only about 1 percent of a proton's mass; the remaining 99 percent arises from intricate dynamics in the quantum chromodynamics vacuum. This experimental method could illuminate how matter gains mass through vacuum interactions. "In our setup, the collision energy at RHIC turns virtual vacuum particles into real matter," Tu explained. "We can now reverse-engineer this complex process."

These results mark a capstone achievement for RHIC, a cornerstone of U.S. nuclear physics research since 2000. The collider will wind down this year as Brookhaven repurposes the site for the Electron-Ion Collider, slated to start around 2030. Researchers note that RHIC-honed