During inflation, all the mass and energy in the universe burst forth from the vacuum of space

• Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle states that the amount of uncertainty in the mass of a subatomic particle increases as it is observed for shorter and shorter time periods

• Because of the uncertainty principle, particle-antiparticle pairs can spontaneously form and disappear within a fraction of a second

• These pairs, whose presence can be detected only indirectly, are called virtual pairs