Now you see it

“If the vacuum around the nucleus can be considered more of a ‘natural’ vacuum as opposed to an immutable ground state with absolutely no spatial variation, and if there are ephemeral fermion/antifermion pairs dominated by electron-positron pairs that create and annihilate with a density that increases significantly as one moves closer to the nucleus, what is so special about the orbiting electron that allows it to be a ‘real’ electron out of this vacuum soup? Perhaps it is not a case of uniqueness, but a case of non-uniqueness. Consider the following: A room full of paired square dancers progresses through the dance moves smoothly as called by the caller, and they occasionally change partners when instructed. What if there were an additional solitary dance partner of a given gender introduced to the ranks of this evenly matched group, and the rule is established that when a trade call is issued, the free dancer will couple to the nearest available dance partner of the opposite gender, and the previously paired dancer that misses out is now the free dancer until the next trade call is issued. As the evening progresses, nearly every dance partner of the gender that had the extra dancer has had a period where they were the ‘unique’ solitary dancer. In an analogous way, perhaps the ‘real’ electron is also ‘unique’. In one instance, the ‘real’ electron collides with a positron vacuum fluctuation elevating the now un-paired electron vacuum fluctuation to the ‘real’ state. This real electron continues in its real state for a brief period until it too collides with a positron vacuum fluctuation, elevating the next un-paired electron vacuum fluctuation to the ‘real’ state. This process continues ad infinitum, and the ‘real’ electron is not unique, rather it is non-unique in that the ‘real’ descriptor is associated with the state, not the individual electron.” – Harold White, et al., “Dynamics of the Vacuum and Casimir Analogs to the Hydrogen Atom”