THE SCHWINGER EFFECT

The Schwinger effect states that in the presence of strong electric fields, (charged) particles and their antiparticles counterparts will be ripped from the quantum vacuum, empty space itself, to become real. In the quantum realm, something really can emerge from nothing. Whoever said, "You can't get something from nothing" must never have learned quantum physics. As long as you have empty space - the ultimate in physical nothingness- simply manipulating it in the right way will inevitably cause something to emerge. In theory, a strong enough electromagnetic field can rip particles and antiparticles out of the vacuum itself, even without any initial particles or antiparticles at all. The Schwinger effect is now verified, and teaches us how the Universe truly makes something from nothing. If you take away all of these elementary particles the "empty space" that remains isn't quite empty in many physical senses. Even if you create a perfect vacuum, there's clearly something that's present in the region of what a physicist might call from a physical perspective, "maximum nothingness".