Virtual ‘Principle ? Cause ? Effect’
The field-theoretic Lagrangian + Variational Principle starts the generative sequence.
Propagating field quanta (virtual quantum field substances),
- e.g. photons, gluons, quarks, leptons, ...
- derived from the Lagrangian by a Variational Principle.
- generate virtual events when interacting.
Virtual events (of quantum field theory) are point events which generate the potential energy part of the Hamiltonian operator.
- They do not all actually occur because, for example, they may generate potentials that are never active in the selected sequence of actual outcomes.