💼 Case: lets consider a general interaction $AB\to A'B'$ with the following Feynman diagram

Here $X$ is mediating the interaction and is a force carrier

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Virtual particles

Looking closer at the first node we see that we have a particle $A$ which emits $A'X$ ie $A\to A'X$

💼 Case: lets consider the rest frame of the initial state

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1️⃣ Lets look at the conservation of energy

2️⃣ Lets consider a Massless force carrier ie $m_X=0$

2️⃣ Lets now consider a massive force carrier $m_X \ne 0$

💎 Conclusion: no matter the assumptions energy is not conserved, in a single vertex

To fix this we say that the particles are created over a very short amount of time which allows spontaneous breaking of energy conservation through $\Delta E\Delta t \ge \hbar/2$

💎 Conclusion: the vertex we studied above $A\to A'X$ is not a real process


💼 Case: lets now consider the real process ie $AB\to A'B'$

Here energy is conserved so $m_A+m_B=m_{A'}+m_{B'}$

The Yukawa potential