Something from Nothing – Insights into the Schwinger Effect

By Atif SuhailReviewed by Louis CastelSep 19 2025

We often picture a vacuum as absolute emptiness, a silent void devoid of matter, energy, or motion. But modern physics paints a far more intriguing picture: what seems like nothing is actually teeming with activity. Beneath the surface, restless quantum fields buzz with energy, where fleeting “virtual” particles constantly appear and vanish in a ceaseless dance of existence. Most disappear without a trace, but under extraordinary conditions these ghostly sparks can be torn apart and transformed into real particles of matter emerging from nothing.¹

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In 1951, Nobel laureate Julian Schwinger formalized this phenomenon in the framework of quantum electrodynamics (QED). He proposed that in the presence of a sufficiently strong electric field, virtual electron–positron pairs could be ripped apart, separated before they recombined, and thus promoted into real particles. This non-perturbative mechanism, now known as the Schwinger effect, remains one of the most striking predictions of QED. However, the electric fields required are fantastically large, on the order of 10¹6 volts per centimeter, far beyond any achievable laboratory experiment.²

Recently, a team at the University of British Columbia (UBC), led by Dr. Philip Stamp and Michael Desrochers, developed a surprising analog system to explore this elusive effect. Instead of unimaginably strong electric fields in empty space, they propose using ultrathin films of superfluid helium. In this system, the flow of the superfluid acts like the electric field, and vortex/antivortex pairs play the role of electron–positron pairs. This novel approach offers a pathway for experimental exploration of physics otherwise locked beyond our technological reach.³

Background: The Schwinger Effect

The Schwinger effect describes the spontaneous production of electron–positron pairs from the vacuum when exposed to an external electric field exceeding a critical threshold. The underlying principle is that the vacuum is unstable: virtual particles, ever present due to quantum fluctuations, can tunnel out of the vacuum state if enough external energy is supplied. The required energy corresponds to the rest mass energy of the electron–positron pair, 2mc², provided by the electric field.¹

The Schwinger effect is a cornerstone of QED because it is fundamentally non-perturbative. Unlike standard processes that can be calculated as small corrections to known interactions, pair production involves a qualitative breakdown of the vacuum state. The effect is also closely related to other exotic phenomena: Hawking radiation near black holes, the Unruh effect for accelerating observers, and the dynamical Casimir effect in quantum optics.^{1, 4}

The key obstacle is scale. The critical field strength, known as the Schwinger limit, is unimaginably high, about E ≈ 10¹6 V/cm. Even the most powerful laser facilities today, such as extreme light infrastructure (ELI) or X-ray free-electron laser (XFEL), remain many orders of magnitude below this requirement, though incremental progress has spurred cross-disciplinary interest in finding indirect signatures. Despite decades of theoretical refinement, no direct observation of the Schwinger effect has been achieved.^{1, 5}

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UBC’s Superfluid Helium Analog

UBC researchers have sidestepped the impracticality of colossal electric fields by designing an accessible analog. They consider an ultrathin two-dimensional film of helium-4 cooled to its superfluid state. In this state, helium flows without viscosity, resembling a frictionless “vacuum.” When the superfluid flows, conditions emerge in which vortex and antivortex pairs, rotating analogs of particle and antiparticle pairs, can spontaneously form.³

Superfluid helium-4 is remarkable. Only a few atomic layers thick, it can be cooled into a phase where quantum effects dominate at macroscopic scales. Its nearly frictionless flow offers a clean platform resembling the quantum vacuum, but one amenable to laboratory experiments. For theorists like Stamp and Desrochers, this makes it an ideal stand-in for the inaccessible high-field regime of QED.³

The UBC team’s model provides a clear mathematical framework linking the dynamics of vortices in superfluid helium to the Schwinger effect in QED. Notably, they overturn a long-held assumption: previous models treated vortex mass as a constant. Stamp and Desrochers demonstrated that vortex mass actually varies dramatically as vortices move. This insight not only changes how physicists think about superfluid dynamics but also feeds back into the original Schwinger framework.³

The most provocative claim of the UBC work is that the same variable mass effect may apply to electron–positron pairs in actual vacuum pair production. If true, this would revise longstanding theoretical predictions of the Schwinger effect itself. As Dr. Stamp notes, the analog is not merely illustrative but feeds directly back into the fundamental theory, a “revenge of the analog.”³

Scientific Implications

The use of superfluid helium as an analog system provides an experimental testbed for phenomena otherwise out of reach. This could open insights into processes central to cosmology, such as vacuum instabilities in the early universe, as well as analogs of black hole radiation. Analog systems thus serve as vital laboratories where abstract quantum field predictions can be probed indirectly but meaningfully.³

Beyond its role as an analog, the research also deepens our understanding of condensed matter itself. The discovery that vortex mass varies in motion reshapes models of vortex dynamics, phase transitions, and two-dimensional systems. Superfluids are not mere playgrounds for analogies, they are real systems with rich and unexplored physics in their own right.³

The theoretical insight that particle mass may vary in dynamic processes has direct implications for QED. Calculations of vacuum pair production, long based on fixed-mass assumptions, may need to be revisited. This could refine predictions not only for the Schwinger effect but also for related phenomena across particle and gravitational physics.³

Perhaps most exciting, the UBC framework outlines a concrete experimental roadmap. Vortex/antivortex pair creation in superfluid helium is within reach of current cryogenic and measurement technologies. This makes the abstract promise of the Schwinger effect something tangible: an experiment that could be carried out in the near future.³

Broader Context & Future Directions

While analog systems advance, experimentalists continue pursuing direct observation with ultra intense lasers. Techniques such as the “dynamically assisted Schwinger mechanism,” which combines high and low frequency laser pulses, offer possible pathways to lower the effective threshold. Facilities like ELI and HIPER continue to lead the way in this ongoing exploration. However, progress is incremental, and success is uncertain. Analog approaches, such as UBC’s helium films, provide a complementary strategy: advancing understanding even as direct detection remains elusive.⁶

The immediate next step is experimental validation: can vortex/antivortex pair creation be observed under the predicted conditions? If confirmed, this would represent a striking experimental realization of vacuum tunneling physics. Further exploration of variable mass dynamics may yield surprises relevant not just to condensed matter but also to high-energy physics. Analog systems might also extend to other platforms, such as Bose–Einstein condensates or photonic systems, broadening the scope of accessible quantum analogies.⁶

Conclusion

Julian Schwinger’s vision of matter springing spontaneously from the vacuum remains one of the most profound predictions of modern physics. Though direct observation is still out of reach, the work of UBC physicists Philip Stamp and Michael Desrochers brings the phenomenon closer to experimental reality. By mapping the Schwinger effect onto vortex dynamics in superfluid helium, they not only provide an accessible analog but also revise the very theoretical foundations of QED through their discovery of variable vortex mass.

This dual achievement underscores the power of analog systems in physics. On one hand, they serve as practical laboratories for otherwise inaccessible phenomena. On the other, they feed back into fundamental theory, forcing us to reconsider assumptions long thought secure. As we continue the search for “something from nothing,” creative approaches such as this may reshape the frontiers of both experimental and theoretical physics.

The Schwinger effect, once an untestable abstraction, is edging closer to the laboratory. And in doing so, it reminds us that even in the emptiest voids or the thinnest films of superfluid, nature conceals astonishing possibilities.

Need a refresher on your particles? Read on here!

References and Further Studies

1. Cohen, T. D.; McGady, D. A., Schwinger Mechanism Revisited. Physical Review D—Particles, Fields, Gravitation, and Cosmology 2008, 78, 036008.
2. Schweber, S. S., Qed and the Men Who Made It: Dyson, Feynman, Schwinger, and Tomonaga. 2020.
3. Desrochers, M.; Marchand, D.; Stamp, P., Vacuum Tunneling of Vortices in Two-Dimensional 4he Superfluid Films. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 2025, 122, e2421273122.
4. Hebenstreit, F.; Alkofer, R.; Dunne, G. V.; Gies, H., Momentum Signatures for Schwinger Pair Production in Short Laser Pulses<? Format?> with a Subcycle Structure. Physical review letters 2009, 102, 150404.
5. Borinsky, M.; Dunne, G. V.; Yeats, K., Tree-Tubings and the Combinatorics of Resurgent Dyson-Schwinger Equations. arXiv preprint arXiv:2408.15883 2024.
6. Shapiro, B., The Role of the Schwinger Effect in Superradiant Axion Lasers. arXiv preprint arXiv:2503.01039 2025.

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