Quantum field theory predicts and has empirically confirmed that there are ever-present mass-energy fluctuations pervading all of space, even in the lowest possible energy, or vacuum of a quantum state: what are called quantum vacuum fluctuations. Historically, this has been described as a field of "virtual" particles. While initially a curiosity, it was quickly realized that these vacuum fluctuations have measurable consequences, for instance producing the Lamb shift of hydrogen spectra and modifying the magnetic moment of the electron. The quantum vacuum defines the ground state field of particles and forces, in quantum electrodynamics (QED) and quantum chromodynamics (QCD). In the Standard Model of QED the "bare" mass of an elementary particle, like the electron, is infinite. However, this infinite bare mass is "dressed" by virtual particles arising from quantum vacuum fluctuations that screen the bare mass such that the effective or observed mass-energy corresponds to the experimental values. While in the QCD vacuum, an "anti-screening" has been proposed in which the separation of "quarks" induce the creation and annihilation of virtual pairs of particle out of the vacuum. This process requires energy and yields the asymptotic freedom responsible for quarks confinement force within the proton core mediated by gluons. The binding energy of this confining force arising from anti-screening contributes to the majority of the hadron's mass, with the Higgs mechanism only accounting for 1-2% of the mass and the gauge bosons themselves acquiring their effective masses via interaction with quantum vacuum fluctuations of the Higgs field.
Learn more about the fundamental role of quantum vacuum fluctuations in generating the mass and forces of the universe as demonstrated in the paper The Origin of Mass and the Nature of Gravity, available on the CERN preprint server Zenodo — https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8381115