Tunneling

Quantum Tunneling is the process by which the false vacuum (also called metastable vacuum) transits to the true vacuum. The transition from false to true vacuum occurs through the formation and expansion of a bubble of true vacuum within the false vacuum. The bubble destabilize as it expands until the bubble pops. The potential energy then transfers into kinetic energy where high energy electrons and photons are broadcast in a spherical pattern. 

The pop of the bubble can be seen as in a balloon there is the outward pressure from the gas and the inward pressure derived from the surface tension. They are both pressures and they can be compared. The surface tension becomes an inward pressure thanks to the curvature of the balloon. As the balloon grows the curvature lower while the surface tension to generate the same inward pressure grow until the balloon can’t sustain the required tension anymore and it pops.

In classical mechanical physics, particles cannot pass through energy barriers. In quantum physics, or quantum tunnelling, or barrier penetration, or simply tunnelling is a quantum mechanical phenomenon in which an object such as an electron passes through a potential energy barrier that should not be passable due to the object not having sufficient energy to pass or surmount the barrier. Tunneling plays an essential role in physical phenomena such as nuclear fusion and alpha radioactive decay of atomic nuclei. 

Daily life tunneling is found in UHF television sets where tunnel diodes are included in local oscillators.