Virtual Transitions
The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.
Virtual Transitions
in quantum theory, transitions of a physical microsystem from one state to another; they are associated with the formation or annihilation of virtual particles—that is, particles that exist only in intermediate states (virtual states), which have a short lifetime.
G. IA. MIAKISHEV
The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.