>What happens during the experiment is that the “mirror” transfers some of its kinetic energy to virtual photons, which helps them to materialise. how is that

>What happens during the experiment is that the “mirror” transfers some of its kinetic energy to virtual photons, which helps them to materialise. how is that different from just saying that their vibrating EM field radiated the energy (a vibrating EM field does radiates the energy and this radiation is photons by definition) without bringing in "virtual photons"