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BTW, even though the vacuum is a perfect insulator, it does have a *finite*
dielectric strength. Once an electric field exceeds the order of magnitude
of about 10^(18) V/m then the vacuum becomes unstable against electron-
positron pair production due to the field polarizing the vacuum so much
that the virtual positrons are pulled in the opposite direction as the
virtual electrons to such an extent that they separate too much to be able
to recombine in the time allowed by the uncertainty principle, thus
producing pairs of real particles.