Tracing the Roots of Dual Nature of Matter and Radiation in Science and Religion

Abstract

Duality (dual nature) is a universal character of our life in this universe. There is an analogy of dual nature of radiation and matter in the domain of Indian Philosophy and Sikh religion, where the ultimate reality is revealed to exist in its dual nature as ‘Sarguna and Nirguna Brahman’. The concept of dual nature of radiation has been in existence since the historical times but, it was Max Planck who introduced it on firm footing to explain the black body radiation spectrum. Louis de Broglie proposed the concept of dual nature of matter in 1924 in his doctoral thesis. It was established during investigations of photoelectric effect and Compton effect. The real breakthrough in interpreting dual nature of matter and radiation may be ascribed to the advent of quantum mechanics. It was observed that in the microscopic world of particles, classical concepts of wave and particle fails to justify the experimental investigations; hence, there is a need to invoke quantum concepts.

Keywords: God particle (Higgs boson), Higgs field, vedanta philosophy, Guru Nanak’s hypothesis, dual nature of matter/radiation, black body radiation, ultimate reality (God or Brahman), nirguna, sarguna, uncertainty principle, complementary principle, Max Planck’s law, photoelectric effect

Cite this Article

H.S. Virk. Tracing the Roots of Dual Nature of Matter and Radiation in Science and Religion. Omniscience: A Multi-disciplinary Journal. 2016; 6(1): 1–7p.