Chapter 215: The Wave-Particle War

Victor’s return was like a clap of thunder, resounding through the chaotic academic world.

Without a moment’s rest, the first thing he did after leaving his seclusion was to unite with dozens of the most steadfast supporters of the Wave Faction.

Most of these people were scholars who had been disappointed and dejected after the “Day of Collapse.” Their hatred for the Particle Faction was already bone-deep.

The next day, the front page of the Truth Daily was occupied by a strongly worded joint statement.

The title of the statement was filled with challenge and declaration.

The World is an Ocean of Waves, and Particles are Merely the Occasional Splashes on its Surface.

In the statement, Victor, with the air of a victor, hailed Horace’s paper as the final bible of wave theory.

He declared that the success of the electron diffraction experiment not only proved that electrons have wave-like properties.

It proved a more fundamental truth.

That the essence of the universe is continuous, is wave-like.

The so-called “particle” was a wrong concept from the very beginning, a complete and utter illusion.

“There are no such things as particles!”

Victor wrote in the statement in an almost roaring tone.

“The so-called particles you see are just the macroscopic manifestation of the wave function’s energy being highly concentrated under specific conditions!”

“Like a huge wave on the surface of the sea, it looks almost like an independent entity, but its essence is still seawater!”

“Your Compton scattering, your cloud chamber tracks, are just the appearance of two energy-concentrated wave packets redistributing energy after a collision!”

This statement pushed wave theory to an unprecedented extreme.

It was no longer satisfied with proving that matter has wave-like properties, but wanted to completely deny the existence of “particles.”

This was undoubtedly a devastating attack on the most fundamental beliefs of the Particle Faction.

When this newspaper was delivered to the hands of the Particle Faction’s leader, Henry.

His face, which was always full of confidence, turned deathly pale.

The several core members of the Particle Faction around him also fell into a state of great confusion and bewilderment.

They could not refute Davisson’s experimental data.

They certainly couldn’t overthrow the personal arguments of the Ninth-Circle Archmage, Horace.

But to make them admit that electrons are waves, to admit that the solid, independent particles they had always insisted on were just ethereal waves, was more painful than killing them.

“This is impossible… there must be a mistake somewhere…” a tall, thin mage murmured, his eyes vacant.

“Victor is twisting the concept! Just because an electron has wave-like properties doesn’t mean it’s not a particle!” Henry slammed the table, trying to rally his troops.

But he himself knew how pale and weak his words were.

How can something be both a particle and a wave?

They can’t all be like light, can they?

This simply didn’t make sense logically!

“We must see it with our own eyes!” Henry stood up, his eyes bloodshot.

“I don’t believe it! Unless I see that diffraction ring with my own eyes!”

He was going to Davisson’s laboratory himself to verify the authenticity of the experiment.

This became their last straw.

That afternoon, Henry, along with several of the most core mages of the Particle Faction, rushed to the underground laboratory of the Royal Academy of Sciences.

Davisson, who had gone from obscurity to fame overnight, was the head of this laboratory.

Faced with the aggressive Henry, Davisson didn’t say much, just silently activated the experimental device that had been visited by countless people.

The atmosphere in the laboratory was so oppressive it was hard to breathe.

Henry and his companions stared at the fluorescent screen.

The electron gun emitted a faint hum.

The high-energy electron beam silently bombarded the specially treated mithril-nickel crystal.

Time seemed to stretch on infinitely at this moment.

Finally, faint spots of light began to appear on the fluorescent screen.

At first, the spots were scattered.

But soon, as more and more electrons hit the screen, a regular pattern began to slowly emerge.

The first ring.

Then, the second.

The third.

The concentric circles of light and dark, like ripples on the surface of water, were clearly and mercilessly presented before everyone’s eyes.

The pattern was identical to the photograph in Horace’s paper.

A mage beside Henry went limp and collapsed to the floor.

Henry’s face instantly lost all its color.

“Again!” he shouted hoarsely. “Change the target, then change it back!”

Davisson silently complied.

When the ordinary nickel target was put in place, the diffraction rings disappeared, leaving only a randomly scattered pattern of light spots on the screen.

And when that special mithril-nickel crystal was put back in its original position, those damn concentric circles, like a demon’s smile, appeared once more.

“Increase the voltage, change the energy of the electrons!”

Henry shouted loudly, as if grasping at the last straw.

Davisson adjusted the accelerating voltage of the electron gun.

On the screen, the spacing of the diffraction rings changed visibly with the change in voltage.

It grew larger.

This was in perfect agreement with the prediction of wave theory that the shorter the wavelength, the less pronounced the diffraction phenomenon.

All hope was shattered at this moment.

Henry stood there blankly, staring at the rings of light with lifeless eyes.

He felt the worldview he had built up over the past few decades collapsing and shattering inch by inch.

The solid and reliable particle world he believed in was just an illusory bubble.

And they, the believers of particles, were just clowns reveling in a bubble.

Outside the laboratory, Victor had been waiting for a long time.

He looked at the devastated Henry walking out and a cruel smile appeared on his face.

“Henry, my old friend,” Victor’s voice was not loud, but it was like a knife stabbing into Henry’s heart.

“Now, do you believe?”

“In this world, there have never been any particles, only the eternal, rhythmic waves.”

The defeat of the Particle Faction was faster than anyone had expected.

When Henry personally admitted that he could not explain the phenomenon of electron diffraction, the morale of the entire particle camp plummeted.

The Wave Faction pressed their advantage, and Victor even announced that in his next public lecture, he would completely liquidate all the “lingering poison” left by the erroneous concept of “particles” in the history of magic.

A conflict deeper and more fundamental than the debate over light was budding and fermenting throughout the magic world.

The core of the debate was no longer limited to light or electrons.

It pointed directly to the ultimate composition of the universe.

Is this world composed of discrete, step-like particles?

Or is it composed of a continuous, smooth-slope-like wave?

The lethality of this question far exceeded that of any previous theoretical revolution.

In the classrooms of the Royal Magic Academy, professors were in an unprecedented dilemma.

In elemental chemistry class, they had to tell the students that the outermost electrons of an atom participate in the formation of chemical bonds in the form of individual particles, which is how the stable octet rule came to be.

But then, in advanced physics class, they had to take out Horace’s paper and show the students how electrons, like waves, can produce beautiful diffraction patterns.

“Professor, is an electron a ball or a continuous entity?” a student raised his hand in class, his face full of sincere confusion.

The old professor on the stage opened his mouth, but could only manage to say, “This question is beyond the scope of this lecture.”

Many apprentices who could not reconcile this logical contradiction began to show signs of mental confusion.

The “Cognitive Impairment Department” of St. Mungo’s Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries was suddenly overwhelmed with patients.

There were even some bold mid-level mages who tried to apply de Broglie’s “matter wave” theory to themselves.

They naively believed that since their bodies were also composed of countless particles with wave-like properties, then theoretically, they should also be able to “disperse” like a wave, passing through walls or dodging attacks.

Horace’s comment on this was: a typical case of a little knowledge being a dangerous thing.

A Sixth-Circle Mage made an attempt in his own laboratory.

He closed his eyes, concentrated his mental power, and imagined his body turning into a cloud of probability.

As a result, he didn’t pass through the wall, but his own magic circulation system, having lost the clear “body” to constrain it, went out of control on the spot.

The violent magic blew up his laboratory into a ruin.

When the rescue team arrived, they found him embedded in the ceiling in a strange posture, still muttering, “My wave function failed to collapse…”

Similar farces were constantly being staged in various parts of the Royal Capital.

The Magic Association had to urgently issue a notice, strictly prohibiting any mage from attempting to “wave-ize” themselves without theoretical guidance.

And since there was no so-called theoretical guidance at present, this notice meant that any mage was strictly prohibited from attempting to wave-ize themselves.

On the terrace of the mage tower, Lia and Klein were sitting together, Lia holding the latest issue of the Truth Daily.

The headline of the newspaper was a follow-up report on the Sixth-Circle Mage embedded in the ceiling, with a very sensational title—The Curse of Matter Waves: Another Explorer Sacrifices for the Truth.

“Sacrifice?” Lia put down the newspaper, a hint of mockery on her lips. “I think he paid the price for his stupidity.”

Klein let out a laugh. “You can’t expect everyone to be like you and me, able to quickly accept the absurdity of the world.”

He picked up a small cookie and held it to Lia’s lips.

Klein naturally opened his mouth to accept it, and gently bit her finger in the process.

Lia’s face turned red, and she quickly withdrew her hand.

She looked at the newspaper’s report on the new round of debate between the Particle and Wave Factions, and her heart stirred a little.

From the moment wave-particle duality was proposed, the debate about the nature of the world was destined to move to a more chaotic and profound level.

And the answer was neither a particle nor a wave.

Or rather, it was both a particle and a wave.

Just as the Royal Capital was in an uproar over this new storm, Eisenberg Manor received a special guest.

De Broglie.

The young man who had leaped from the dust to the clouds overnight was sitting nervously opposite Horace.

Horace looked at the young man before him, who was somewhat introverted, even a bit nerdy, his eyes full of warmth.

‘This is the seemingly unremarkable young man who, with a simple formula, had glimpsed one of the deepest mysteries of the universe.’

“Mr. de Broglie, your theory is the most important contribution to physics since Miss Lia’s photon theory,” Horace raised his wine glass, his tone sincere.

“No, Master, I… I was just lucky,” de Broglie stood up in a fluster, stammering.

“This is not luck,” Horace shook his head. “This is the insight of a genius.”

Dinner ended in a pleasant atmosphere.

In the study, Horace extended a formal invitation to de Broglie.

“I plan to establish a brand new department within the framework of the Royal Academy of Sciences, dedicated to exploring the laws of the microscopic world.”

“I will name it the ‘Institute for Microscopic Matter Research’,” Horace said with a smile, looking at de Broglie. “I hope you will become the first researcher of this institute. I will grant you the highest level of research authority and resource support.”

De Broglie’s eyes lit up instantly.

He could hardly believe his ears.

This meant that he would have his own laboratory, ample funding, and could continue his beloved theoretical research without any distractions.

“I… I am willing! Master! I am very willing!” he replied excitedly, his voice trembling.

At this time, the leader of the Wave Faction, Victor, also formally submitted an application to the Magic Association.

He requested that the Magic Association organize a “Debate of Truth” of the highest specifications.

He wanted to have a final, decisive showdown with the remnants of the Particle Faction.

To completely end this long-standing dispute about the nature of the world.

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